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THE STORY OF 



LAURA SECORD 



AND 



CANADIAN REMINISCENCES 



BY v^. ^ 




]\{iJV^>^) 



r(\y&.EMMA AT^CURRIE 

II 



JV/TB- PORTRAITS AND ENGRAVINGS 



TORONTO 

\VILLIAM BRIGGS 

1900 






Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one 
thousand nine hundred, by Emma A. Currie, at the Department 
of Agriculture. 






^ 



THIS BOOK 

IS DEDICATED TO THE BELOVED MEMORY OF 

/IDrs. Cur3on, 

WHOSE HIGHEST AIM WAS TO INSPIRE 

CANADIAN WOMEN TO TAKE THEIR PLACE IN 

THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

Introduction 9 

I. The First Settlers - - - - - - - 13 

II. The Second Family, with Documents and Auto- 
graphs - - - - - - - - 16 

III. The Ingersoll Family, with Documents and Auto- 

graphs 36 

IV. Laura Ingersoll Secord, with Documents and Auto- 

graphs 48 

V. Reminiscences of 1812 82 

VI. St. David's and Vicinity 89 

VII. Fort Niagara - - 98 

VIII. Isabella Marshall Graham establishes First Board- 
ing School in New York City, and Founder of 
First Orphan Asylum in the United States - 103 

IX. Memoir of John Whitmore, by William Kirby, with 

Autograph 115 

X. The Nelles Family 124 

V 



vi CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XI. Visit of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent - - - 126 
XII. Two Historic Burnings— Niagara and St. David's 129 

XIII. Stamford Park 141 

XIV. Recollections of 1837 and 1838 - - - 144 
XV. Burning of the Steamer Car^//«^ - - - - I49 

XVI. Samuel Zimmerman 152 

XVII. The First Fenian Raid of 1866 - - - -15? 
XVIII. Brant Memoranda - - - - - - 161 

XIX. Letters : 

Mrs. Thorn 165 

William Woodruff 167 

Mrs. Jenoway - - - - - - - 170 

XX. Past and Present Names of Places - - - i73 

XXI. An Old Ledger, 1806, 1807, 1808, 1809 - - 175 

XXII. Mrs. Grover, of Seaton Hall, Colborne - - 182 

XXIII. Conclusion -------- '93 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



I'AUE 

Laura Ingersoll Secord, with Autograph - Frontispiece 

Homestead of Major David Secord, St. David's - - 20 

Autograph of James Secord - 25 

Autographs of Major David Secord and Mrs. Secord - 27 

Autographs of Stephen Secord and Anna Secord - - 30 

Home of Laura Ingersoll at Great Barrington, Mass. - 49 

Home of Laura Ingersoll Secord at Queenston - - - 57 

FitzGibbon's Headquarters, 1893 59 

Place where the Indians encamped 61 

Chippewa Home of Mrs. Secord, where she died - - 70 

Present State of Laura Ingersoll Secord's Grave - - 74 

Account of Schooling Billey Galley, and Autograph ot 

Mrs. Backus 75 

Letter and Autograph of Major Thomas Ingersoll - -11 

Diagram of the Battle of Beaver Dams - - - - 78 

Source of Four Mile Creek, above St. David's - - - 89 

vii 



viii ILL US TRA TIONS. 

PAGE 

Four Mile Creek, below St. David's 93 

Autograph of David Secord - 97 

Fort Niagara in 1888 98 

Autograph of Wm. Kirby 123 

Arsenal inside Fort George, 1888 - - . - - 129 

Magazine inside Fort George, 1888 129 

Polly Page (Mrs. David Secord) - - - - - 139 

Stamford Park, 1863 - - 141 

Seals attached to Patents from the Crown, 1822 - - 142 

Autograph of Ezekiel Woodruff- . . . . - 145 

Brock's Monument and Home of William Lyon Mackenzie, 

at Queenston, 1895 ------- 146 

Fort Erie, 1890 j^g 

Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea) - - -- - - - 161 

Letter of Joseph Brant - - 164 

Fort Mississauga, 1888 170 

Bridgewater Mill, in Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park - 174 

Leaf from an Old Ledger 176 



INTRODUCTION. 

When attention was drawn to Laura Ingersoll 
Secord, in i860, it was a great surprise that she had 
so long been unappreciated and known to so few. 
Living among many of her husband's relatives for 
over a quarter of a century, hearing constant allusion 
to those times, it seemed almost impossible that such 
heroism should have remained untold and her name 
unmentioned. After reading the newspaper account, 
inquiry was made of an aged friend whose whole life 
was spent in St. David's, as to its truthfulness. Quickly 
came the reply, " It is all true." No details were 
given, but the answer was sufficient confirmation. 
The excitement of the American Civil War and re- 
moval from St. David's caused the circumstances to 
be almost forgotten, but now and then allusions would 
come recalling them. When the Woman's Literary 
Club was formed in St. Catharines, in 1 892, it was my 
part to prepare one of the papers for the opening of 
the Club. The historic subject of Laura Secord was 
selected, and during the preparation of the paper I 
found that her ancestors and my own came from the 
same place, Great Barrington, Mass. Previous to 
this it had been a .custom to spend a week or two 

9 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

during the summer season in making sketches in 
water-colors of historic places and buildings, of which 
there are so many in this locality. Some had been 
previously made in Niagara and vicinity. I con- 
cluded to make sketches in connection with Mrs. 
Secord's history, and to gather what information it 
was possible to gain from her relatives, and those 
who had seen and known her. Strange to say, no 
one seemed to know anything of her early life or 
later years. At historic gatherings I had the pleasure 
of meeting Mrs. Curzon, and was greatly impressed 
by her appearance. Not long before her death some 
correspondence took place between us. Suffering 
at that time from ill health, an offer was made to 
place what memoranda had been collected in her 
hands, to be used as she saw best. It was my last 
letter to her, for her death took place soon after. 
Feeling that what had been collected might be of 
use, a commencement was made to put them together. 
A letter was written to the Postmaster of Great 
Barrington, asking for the address of any of the 
Ingersoll descendants still remaining there. This 
letter was placed in the hands of Charles J. Taylor, 
Esq., and brought a reply from him. Mr. Taylor had 
written the history of Great Barrington, which has 
proved of great service. Of this gentleman's kindness 
to a total stranger, whom he has never seen — the 
time he has given, the researches he has made in 
helping through many difficulties — I cannot speak in 
too grateful terms. 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

Colonel Dunn and Mrs. Dunn, of Toronto, have 
also been efficient helpers, in furnishing documents, 
history, letters and memoranda relating to the Secord 
family, and to Laura Secord also. The granddaugh- 
ters of Mrs. Secord, Miss Louisa Smith and Mrs. 
Cockburn, have furnished information which should 
have weight with the committee who have the erec- 
tion of the monument in charge. When it was neces- 
sary, J. Hamilton Ingersoll, Esq., of St. Catharines, 
has written many letters. 

Miss Woodruff, of Chicago, has furnished much 
valuable information in regard to her grandfather 
and grandmother, Mr. and Mrs. David Secord, also 
valuable autographs; Mr. Henry Woodruff, of St. 
David's, Mrs. Thorn, of Princeton, and Mrs. Saxon, 
of St. Catharines, important letters ; Mrs. Norton, of 
Westfield, Mass., and Mrs. Hitchcock, of Amherst, 
Mass., have assisted in information regarding the 
Ingersolls. 

My old friend, Mr. Kirby, author of " Chien d'Or," 
has contributed an article upon the Whitmore family, 
with whom he is connected by marriage, and which 
is a valuable addition to the history of the early set- 
tlement of Upper Canada. 

Miss Janet Carnochan has also given much infor- 
mation in regard to the local history of Niagara, 

To Miss Bothwell, of Lockport, and many others 
who have done much to help me, my grateful thanks 

are given. 

The portrait of Mrs. Secord, which is the frontis- 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

piece of this work, is from a plate furnished by Rev. 
Canon Bull, Niagara Falls South. The late Mr. Joel 
Lyons, of Chippewa, had a likeness of Mrs. Secord, 
taken in what year is not known, and from this the 
plate was made. 

The likeness of Mrs. Secord which is in " Lossine's 
Pictorial Field Book of the War of 1812," and this 
are the only ones known to have been made. The 
autograph of Laura Secord accompanies the likeness. 
It is the only autograph known to be in existence. 
In a footnote, page 621, Mr. Lossing says Mrs. Secord 
wrote to him, February i8th, 1861. In 1867 he speaks 
of her as being ninety-two years of age, and her men- 
tal faculties in full play, her eyesight so perfect that 
she could read without spectacles. Mrs. Gregory, her 
niece, who saw her in her last illness, and but three 
days before her death, bears testimony to the won- 
derful preservation of her mind. 

To Mrs. Grover, of Toronto, who has allowed 
selections to be made from her " Recollections," my 
warmest thanks are given. When these are published 
in full, as they will be by her relatives, it is hoped 
they will receive the attention they so richly deserve. 

Emma A. Currie. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE FIRST SETTLERS. 

The women of Canada can justly claim that the 
first Loyalist refugees to seek shelter under the pro- 
tecting flag at Fort Niagara were women. Dr. Can- 
niff, in his " Settlement of Upper Canada," gives the 
fact that " in 1776 there arrived at Fort Niagara in a 
starving and otherwise destitute condition five women 
and thirty-one children, whom the circumstances of 
the rebellion had driven away." Tradition places 
their arrival in the month of November. They had 
come from the banks of the Hudson and the valley 
of the Mohawk, guided by friendly Indians, to this 
ark of refuge. Their names were Mrs. Nelles, Mrs. 
Secord, Mrs. Young, Mrs. Buck and Mrs. Bonar. Of 
these women but little is known, their names alone 
being rescued from the oblivion of the past. Of Mrs. 
Secord we know that her husband and two of her 
sons were in Butler's Rangers, fighting for that flag 
which had sheltered and protected their ancestors so 
many years before. Among the Rangers are found 
the names of Captain Nelles and Captain Young. 
Whether they were the husbands of Mrs. Secord's 
companions is not known. Of Mrs. Secord it is said 

13 



14 THE FIRST SETTLERS. 

her children were in a wagon. They had escaped 
with their lives, bringing nothing with them. Her 
youngest son and child, James Secord, was at that 
time three years old. They were given tents, cloth- 
ing and food. As the days and months passed away 
the numbers increased from the Carolinas, Virginia, 
and the New England colonies. There came a desti- 
tute host, along the length of the St. Lawrence, to 
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The population 
increased in the towns and cities so rapidly that it 
caused a scarcity in the necessaries of life. In Hali- 
fax the population rose in a few months from 1,400 to 
4,000. And so everywhere, producing suffering and 
privation. There was not a settlement on this side 
of the Niagara River when the Revolution com- 
menced. When it closed, in 1783, there was a popu- 
lation of 10,000. In 1792 there were four hundred 
houses in Niagara. From the frontier at Fort Niagara 
to Detroit, along the river and lake shore, there was 
a thin fringe of civilization. Many of the refugees 
waited in New York, hoping, when peace came, to 
return to their former homes. When New York was 
evacuated, November 25th, 1783, there arose a wail of 
despair. Those that could went to England, some to 
the Bahama Islands. Many that went to New Bruns- 
wick and Nova Scotia came to Upper Canada when 
they heard of the fertile soil and milder climate. 
Twelve thousand left New York at that time. As 
fast as possible they were given lands, implements 
and seeds. Grist-mills were erected to aid them. 



THE FIRST SETTLERS. 15 

Fort Niagara was the centre of the hopes, the ambi- 
tions, the activities of that period. Here, brought at 
great expense from the old land, were kept those 
vast supplies of various kinds, which were distributed 
to the remotest settlements — the munitions of war for 
themselves and other garrisons, rations and supplies 
for their Indian allies. The canoes of the Indians, 
laden with furs from the Upper Lakes, and the 
bateaux from the Lower Province with their freight, 
all made this their stopping-place. Councils of war 
prepared for attack and defence, as the occasion 
required. Looking now on its crumbling walls, its 
deserted buildings, its empty fortress, the dismal 
chambers where the garrison slept within its walls, 
it is hard to realize its importance one hundred and 
forty years ago. But it was then the door to the 
west and to the south, and he who commanded those 
was entrusted by his sovereign with a possession 
which required wisdom and strength to keep. 

Such were the conditions when those women ar- 
rived. As their friends and relatives followed they 
settled on the western bank of the river, and with 
willing hands and brave hearts they turned the 
wilderness into golden fields and fruitful orchards. 
What they did in the thirty years of peace proves the 
intelligence and the industry with which they worked. 
The founders of the Dominion have left a record 
which their descendants should hold up to future gen- 
erations as worthy of everlasting remembrance. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE SECORD FAMILY. 

The ancestor of the Secord family, Amboise Secord, 
came with his five children from LaRochelle, in France, 
to New York in 1681. He, along with other French 
emigrants, founded the town of New Rochelle, in 
Westchester County, of the same State, about 1689. 
The name is spelled in various ways. In the original 
it is Seacard, and pronounced se-kar. Most of the 
Huguenots sympathized with England during the 
Revolutionary War. The Secords were very numer- 
ous, and more of that name are found among the 
U. E. Loyalists and first settlers of Canada than of 
any other. Great Britain had assisted the Huguenots 
during their persecution in France, had sheltered them 
in England, had helped them to emigrate to America, 
and they proved their gratitude by loyal service and 
great sacrifices during the war. Many gave up every- 
thing, even life, in the days that tried men's souls. 
They were a strong, hardy people, generous and 
hospitable, long-lived also — one of their descendants 
dying in New Rochelle in the year 1845, aged 105 
years. In Canadian annals we find that Peter Secord, 
living on the Talbot Road, died in 18 18 in his 103rd 

X6 



THE SECORD FAMILY. 17 

year. He was one of the first settlers. The last 
year of his life he killed four wolves and walked 
twenty miles to make the necessary affidavit to obtain 

the bounty. 

They were hard-working and thrifty, silk-weaving 
being their principal occupation, and none of the 
early settlers had titles of nobility.* The Docu- 
mentary History of the State of New York shows 
that "in the year 1689 they had dedicated 100 acres 
of land to the use of the French Church. In 1709 all 
the members of the Church, with the exception of 
two, agreed to conform themselves to the liturgy and 
rites of the Church of England, as established by 
law, and put themselves under the protection of the 
same." Among the names are fourteen spelled Sycar, 
as belonging to the Church, and among the peti- 
tioners are nine Secords, hardly any two of the nine 
spelling the name in the same manner. Sycar, Secord, 
Sicard, Seacord, Se Cord, Seicard are the different 

forms.-|- 

The original French Church was founded at New 
Rochelle as early as 1692. In 1709, from the diffi- 
culty of obtaining ministers, and being considered 
Dissenters, all but two persons conformed to the 
Church of England, and were obliged to erect a new 
edifice in 17 10. The two who would not conform 

* The Documentary History of New York State, in the edition 
of 1850, Vol. III., and relating to Westchester County, contains much 
information regarding the Secords and their descendants. 

t From Canadian Archives : "Amable and Pierre De Sicard, stating 
their services and praying for an allowance." 
2 



18 THE SECORD FAMILY. 

retained possession of the old church and the lOO 
acres of land which had been reserved for a French 
church. Others joined them, but the congregation 
was not large, being always too poor to hire a minister, 
and receiving no help from the Established Church 
Fund, they naturally fell under the care of the French 
Church in New York City, and were known as its 
Annex in New Rochelle.* Services were performed 
here occasionally by the minister from New York. 
Toward the Revolution it fell into decay, and at that 
time ceased to be used as a church. The edifice was 
torn down, and the Episcopal Church, through the 
courts, obtained possession of the lands, although 
they were granted for a French church erected, or to 
be erected. After the war, what remained of the 
congregation were merged in a Presbyterian church, 
which still exists. 

Solomon Secord was baptized in the Annex, show- 
ing that his parents, descendants of the Badeaus 
ancestry, still clung to the original French faith. The 
records are in the church in New York City, and were 
kept in duplicate in the church at New Rochelle. 
The compiler says they agree exactly. In Appen- 
dix I. of the Secord family will be found much 
valuable genealogical information. James Secord, of 
New Rochelle, a lieutenant in Butler's Rangers, was 

* New Rochelle is now a part of Greater New York City. In the 
old times we find that many of the church members, with their families, 
walked to New York to attend church, when there was no service at 
New Rochelle. 



THE SECORD FAMILY. 19 

born April 24th, 1732 ; he was probably of the fourth 
generation. His wife was Madelaine Badeau, a de- 
scendant of Elias Badeau, who fled from St. George's, 
Saintonge, France, to Bristol, England, and from 
there came to America. They had eight children, 
five sons and three daughters, most of them destined 
to take an important part in the history of Canada. 
Lieutenant James Secord died at Niagara, July 13th, 
1784. Tradition says he was buried in the private 
burying-ground of Colonel Butler. Of the date of 
his wife's death and place of burial nothing is known. 
James, their fifth son and youngest child, was three 
years old when they arrived at Fort Niagara. This 
son was the future husband of Laura Ingersoll. 

Major David Secord, the third son, had shown his 
patriotism and courage from early youth. His father 
and eldest brother belonged to Butler's Rangers, and 
we find him in his sixteenth year serving with them 
during the Revolutionary War till its completion. He 
was present at Wyoming as sergeant in the Rangers. 
This expedition of Colonel Butler was to bring away 
the families of the Loyalist refugees to Fort Niagara. 
At that time Sergeant Secord, at the risk of his own 
life, saved the lives of three American prisoners who 
had abused and killed the wife of Oneida Joseph, an 
Indian chief, who afterwards settled on the Mohawk 
Reservation at Brantford, and lived to a great age. 

Many of the Rangers settled in the Niagara Dis- 
trict, drawing lands as compensation for their services 
and the homes they had lost by confiscation. Mr. 



20 THE SECORD FAMILY. 

Secord had 600 acres of land between Queenston and 
St. David's. His relatives and himself received large 
grants in the district also, and in other parts of Canada. 
He entered largely into business of various kinds. He 
was surveyor, farmer, miller, besides erecting numerous 
buildings for mechanics in the village. His first mill 
was built in 1786. Appendix V. will give some idea of 
the variety of his occupations and possessions. He 
had been in many battles during the Revolution, and 
thirty years of peace again found him ready to face 
the enemy. In the battle of Queenston Heights he 
bore a conspicuous part. In the third and last en- 
gagement, in the afternoon, when the invaders were 
being driven back, Major Secord called to those who 
were rushing down the bank of the river to come 
back and their lives would be spared. Among those 
who surrendered he found his wife's father and brother. 
Another brother of Mrs. Secord, a Mr. Thomas Page, 
came over before the war, and settled in Pelham ; he 
was a Quaker. David, eldest son of Major Secord, was 
taken prisoner, and after some time exchanged. He 
reached home the day of the battle of Lundy's Lane. 
It was late in the afternoon when he arrived. While 
taking his supper the firing was heard, and, tired as 
he was, he said, " I must go to father ! " and started 
on foot for the battle-field, five miles away. Father 
and son met, grasping each other's hand in a brief 
welcome, and they fought side by side until young 
Secord was again taken prisoner, and afterwards sent 
to Greenbush, N.Y. Major Secord was wounded but 




present state of lalka inc.ersull 
secord's crave, 1900. 



THE SECORD FAMILY. ^\ 

once in the eight battles in which he was engaged 
during the Revolutionary War, and it was a supersti- 
tion among the Indians, who knew his dangers and 
wonderful escapes, that he bore a charmed life. After 
the war was over he had for the second time to 
recommence the busy life which in past years had 
made him so prominent and so prosperous. For 
eight years he was a member of Parliament, doing 
good service for his constituency and country. He 
deprecated the selfishness of the Family Compact, 
who by their ill-timed measures were driving a loyal 
people to rebellion. He supported the reforms which 
form the basis of our present government. He was 
too well known to be branded as disloyal, and too 
sensible to go to the extreme lengths to which Mac- 
kenzie was driven. Before the rebellion" came he 
had shown his courage in another form. Robert 
Gourlay had been one of the earliest Reformers, and 
one of the first to suffer for his principles. When 
unjustly deprived of his property he had appealed in 
vain for justice. Suffering in body and mind, sick 
and penniless, he stayed in Mr. Secord's house until 
he could return to Scotland. He was not the man to 
forget a kindness, and Mr. Secord's daughter told the 
writer that the first silk dresses she and her sister 
had were given, with other remembrances, by Mr. 
Gourlay when he returned to Canada. Mr. Secord 
was generous and hospitable to a fault ; his house 
was ever open to His Majesty's troops. In addition 
to military services, he was Commissioner of High- 



22 THE SECORD FAMILY. 

ways and Bridges, giving his services for the latter 
without pay. 

Major Secord was three times married. First to 
a Miss Millard, who died about a year after her 
marriage, leaving one daughter, who married Mr. 
Cummings. His second wife was Catharine Smith, 
daughter of EHas Smith, by whom he had eight sons 
and one daughter. His third wife was the widow 
Dunn, whose maiden name was Polly Page, sister of 
the Thomas Page, of Pelham, previously mentioned. 
She had two sons, Lorenzo and Luther, by her first 
marriage. It is in connection with Mr. Secord's 
marriages, and illustrating the times, that the follow- 
ing circumstances are given. When there was no 
resident clergyman who was legally entitled to per- 
form the marriage service, the resident magistrate, 
or the commanding officer at a military station, was 
empowered to do so. The second and third mar- 
riages were thus made. An Act was passed by 
which those who had been married in this manner, 
by appearing before the Clerk of the Peace, and 
making affidavit as to who performed the ceremony, 
the time and place, and giving the date of the birth 
of children, received a certificate which settled all 
doubts as to the legality of such marriages. Major 
Secord made those affidavits, which were registered 
on the 8th of February, 1832. Rev. Mr. Addison, of 
St Mark's, Niagara, records that some were re-mar- 
ried by him. The marriage register kept by him is 
instructive and of great value, for the magistrates 



THE SECORD FAMILY. 23 

seldom kept a record, and if they made any they 
have been lost. 

Major Secord's sister, Magdalen Secord, married 
the Hon. Richard Cartwright, and was the ancestress 
of that family which has been, and still continues to 
be, so prominent in the history of the Dominion. 
Another sister married Dr. Lawrence, of Savannah, 
Georgia. The youngest brother, James, married 
Laura Ingersoll, who fills the most important place 
in these reminiscences. Major Secord's family was 
large; the names will be found in Appendix II. 
His son George was a member of Parliament for 
many years. ' 

From the Scarboro records the following are 
selected : 

Isaac Secor came to Canada at the outbreak of the Revolu- 
tionary War ; came first to Kingston, then moved west, building 
the first stone mill at Napanee. The Secords of Scarboro 
were loyal, like those who settled in the Niagara District. 

The first post-office in the township was on Lot 19, Conces- 
sion D ; the first Postmaster, Peter Secor, who held the posi- 
tion from its establishment, in 1830, to 1838. A footnote says, 
Mr. Secor's sympathy with Mackenzie was what led to this 
change. 

Miss Janet Carnochan, of Niagara, has furnished 
the following, which is evidence of the industry of the 
Secords, and of the success which had attended their 
efforts not seven years from the arrival of the first 
refugees at Fort Niagara : 

On the 25th of August, 1782, Col. Butler took the first 
census of the settlement of Niagara. Among the names are 



24 THE SECORD FAMILY. 

Peter Secord — 7 persons, 4 horses, 6 cattle, 14 hogs, 30 acres 
cleared land, 80 bu. wheat, 60 bu. Indian corn, 6 bu. oats, 100 
bu. potatoes. 

Jno. Secord — 5 persons, 6 horses, 10 cattle, 3 hogs, 27 acres 
cleared, 50 bu. wheat, 50 corn, 70 potatoes. 

James Secord — 6 persons, 3 horses, 3 cattle, 11 sheep, 3 
hogs, 20 acres cleared land, 7 bu. wheat, 100 corn, 30 potatoes. 

In 1783, among the names are Tho's Secord, 40 acres 
cleared. 

Peter Secord, 25 ; Jno., 50 ; Jno. Secord, jr., 10 acres 
cleared. 

Authority, Ernest Cruikshank, from Military Papers. 

The following appears in the Dominion Archives : 

Companies mustered in November and December, 1783. 

B. 105 P. 399. Among the names are Silas Secord, Ser- 
geant ; age 28, his wife 23. 

James Secord, age 53, his wife 49, 2 sons and 3 daughters. 

Peter Secord, age 62, wife 40, 3 sons and 2 daughters. Page 
395, Bo. 105. 

Miss Carnochan furnishes this also : 

" In a narrative of the captivity and sufferings of Benjamin 
Gilbert and his family, in the possession of Peter A. Porter, of 
Niagara Falls, N.Y., and kindly loaned to me, are found some 
interesting references to the Secord family, which show them 
to have been a family of means and ready to help those in 
trouble. 

" The Gilbert family were carried off from Pennsylvania by 
Indians, 25th of April, 1780, and after many hardships several 
of them reached Fort Niagara and Butl'ersburg (now Niagara), 
on the side of the river opposite to Fort Niagara. Abner Gil- 
bert was with Elizabeth Gilbert. They went to the house of 
John Secord, an Englishman, who was styled brother of the 
Chief, having lived with him some time before. Elizabeth was 
left here, and in July, 1781, tried to free Abner, who now found 



THE SECORD FAMILY. 25 

his sister Elizabeth, and stayed two weeks with her in the house 
of John Secord, and drew clothing from the King's stores. 
Elizabeth was very comfortable here. She, with John Secord's 
wife and Capt. Freyes' wife, went to see the child of Elizabeth 
Peart (wife of Benjamin Peart Gilbert, the oldest son of the 
Gilberts), over a year old, a captive with the Indians. Capt. 
Freyes' wife [jurchased the child for thirteen dollars. Elizabeth 
Gilbert lived more than a year in John Secord's family, and 
became strongly attached to them, calling the mistress of the 
house 'mamma.' John Secord took her one day to Fort 
Niagara, where she met six of her relatives. Col. Butler and 
John Secord procured her release from the Indians (who claimed 
her) by presents. She then stayed two weeks at Butlersburg 
with the Secord family, and eventually they reached their 
home." 

The author of " Old Trails on the Niagara Fron- 
tier," F. H. Severance, has lately given a full account 
of the captivity of the Gilbert family. He also relates 
the following incident of the War of 1812 : 

" Mr. John Lay, a merchant of Buffalo, was taken prisoner 
the night that village was burned, December 13th, 18 13. The 
prisoners were marched from Fort Erie to Newark (now 
Niagara). Many Indians were there. Like the white men, they 
were celebrating their victory with strong potations. Mr. Lay 
knew a Mrs. Secord who was living in Niagara. He asked to 
be sent there, and under an escort was sent to her house. The 
house was surrounded, but Mrs. Secord concealed him in safety 
until the arrival of his partner from Buffalo under a flag of 
truce, when he was removed and sent a prisoner to Montreal.'' 



dyUA 



a^mj^<^ 




26 THE SECORD FAMILY. 

APPENDIX I. 

Lieutenant James Secord, of New Rochelle, N.Y., was born 
April 24th, 1732, and baptized in the Episcopal Church, May 
28th. He was probably of the fourth generation. He married 
Madelaine Badeau, a descendant of Elias Badeau, who fled 
from St. George's, Saintonge, in France, to Bristol, in England, 
and from there came to America. 

Children of James and Madelaine Secord.* 

Born. Names. Married. Died. 

9 March, 1755, Solomon, Margaret Bowman, 22 Jan., 1799. 

20 Aug., 1757, Stephen, Ann or Hannah De 

Forest, 31 March, 1808. 

2 Aug., 1759, David, ist Miss Millard, 

2nd Catharine Smith, 9 Aug., 1844. 
3rd Widow Dunn, me 

Polly Page. 

21 Feb., 1762, John, went away, never heard from. 

4 May, 1764, Magdalen, Richard Cartwright, 25 Jan., 1827. 
21 July, 1766, Esther, unmarried, 4 Feb., 1802. 

15 May, 1770, Mary, Dr. Lawrence, Sa- 

vannah, Georgia. 

7 July, 1773, James, Laura Ingersoll, 22 Feb., 1841. 

* Magdalen and Madelaine are names often found among the female 
descendants, and Badeau among the males of this branch of the Secord 
family. 



THE SECORD FAMILY. 27 

APPENDIX II. 
Children of Major David Secord. 

Miss Millard, first wife, left one daughter, married to Mr. 
Cummings. 

Catharine Smith, second wife, left David, James, Stephen, 
John, Solomon, George, Robert, Philip, PhcEbe. 

Mrs. Dunn, third wife, left Riall, Elijah, Mary, Elizabeth. 








APPENDIX III. 

The following is condensed from an article in the Napanee 
i?^at/^r of May 19th, 1899 : 

Richard Cartwright, born in London, England, 20th October, 
1720. 

His wife, Joanna, born 9th March, 1726. 

They are buried in St. Paul churchyard, Kingston, Canada. 
They were residents of Albany, N.Y., LoyaHsts, and came to 
Canada about 1790. Their son, Hon. Richard Cartwright, was 
born at Albany, February 2nd, 1759, and married Magdalen 
Secord,* born at New Rochelle, May 4th, 1764. 

James, 3rd May, 1786, unmarried, died Oct. nth, 

1811. 
Richard, 24th Dec, 1787, unmarried,died at Charleston, 

S.C, 4th May, 1811. 

* Private letters show that Mrs. Cartwright possessed in an eminent 
degree the kind and generous heart of her ancestors. 



\ 



28 T//S SECORD FAMILY. 

Hannah, Dec, 1792, married Capt. Alex. Dobbs, 

Royal Navy ; died 4th Jan., 1839. 

Thos. Robinson, 19th Jan., 1799, married Miss Fisher, died 

26th June, 1826. 

Stephen Henry, 24th Jan., 1801, died aged 13. 

John Solomon, T,„;r,c married Sarah Hayter Mac- 

J. \v ms. 

^^^ 4th Sept., 1804, ^"'^y' d'^^ '5 Jan., 1845. 

Robert David, married Harriett Dobbs, died 

1843. 
Children of Rev. Robert David Cartwright 
AND Harriett Dobbs. 

Two sons who died young. 

A daughter, Mary Jane, and 

Rev. Conway Cartwright, Protestant Chaplain of Kingston 
Penitentiary, Canada. 

Sir Richard John Cartwright, bom 4th Dec, 1835 ; married, 
August, 1859, Miss Frances Law. 

The Hon. Richard Cartwright, son of the Loyalist, was in 
partnership at Niagara with the (afterwards) Hon. Robert 
Hamilton. He settled in Kingston about 1790. Was a mer- 
chant and forwarder and an extensive mill- owner, one of the 
earliest magistrates, and was appointed by Governor Simcoe a 
member of the First Legislative Council of Upper Canada, 
which office he held at the time of his death. He was also a 
prominent officer in the Militia, Chairman of the Land Com- 
missioners for this section of the Province (Napanee). He had 
grants of 6,000 acres of land, of which a considerable portion 
was in the locality of Napanee. The land, with water privi- 
leges, was on both sides of the river. The town of Napanee 
was built on land which once was his. He obtained the first 
Government flour mill erected there in 1785. He was a 
member of the Church of England, and was interested in 
educational matters. 

Of Sir Richard Cartwright, now the Minister of Trade and 
Commerce in the present Government of the Dominion, it is suf- 
ficient to say his career is well known to the present generation. 



THE SECORD FAMILY. 29 

APPENDIX IV. 
Dec. 1778. 

To the Honorable Frederick Haldimand, Esq., Governor- 
General and Commander-in-Chief in and over the Province of 
Canada and the Frontiers thereof in America, and Vice-Admiral 
of the same. 

The petition of Mary De Forest humbly sheweth : 
That your Excellency's petitioner, with seven children, have 
suffered much and are greatly distressed by being plundered of 
all their effects, and her husband imprisoned, by the Rebels in 
Albany, in the year 1777, occasioned by his Loyalty and Attach- 
ment to the Interests of Great Britain. 

And as your Excellency's petitioner, with her children in 
these distressed circumstances, will become naked for want of 
clothmg and in want of other necessaries requisite in a family, 
as she has received no other assistance than provisions. 

Your Petitioner Humbly Requesteth that your Excellency 
will take her suffering condition into your most serious con- 
sideration, hoping your clemency will grant them some relief, 
and your Petitioner, as in duty bound, will ever pray. 

Mary De Forest. 

Endorsed.— The Humble Petition of Mary De Forest to the 
Honorable Frederick Haldimand, Esq., &c., &c. 
Pray for relief of her and seven children. 

This Mary De Forest is the mother of Hannah (or Anna), 
wife of Stephen Secord. 

Family of Stephen Secord and Hannah (or Anna) 

De Forest. 

Names. Births. Married. Died, 

^^''y' 20 Feb., 1785, Richard Robin- 

son. 30 Dec, 1865 

J^"^^^' 19 April, 1787, unmarried. 3 Jan., 1852 

^^^'^' 19 July, 1790, Ann Carscallen. 27 July, 1846 



30 



THE SECORD FAMILY. 



Names. Births. 

Elizabeth, 7 Mar., 

Esther Magdalen, i June, 
William Edwin, 26 Mar., 
Richard Henry, 12 May, 

Stephen Alexander, 15 May, 
Julia Ann, 8 May, 

Samuel Robison, 18 Dec, 

Hannah De Forest, wife 
Oct. loth, 1 84 1. 



Married. 
1793, unmarried. 



Died. 

22 Aug., 1 8 14 

(At Napanee) 

179:;, George Keefer. 7 Sept., 1 871 

1797, Frances Holden. 5 Jan., 1881 

1799, Catharine Elizabeth 

Stull 7 July, 1866 

1 801, unmarried. 27 Feb., 1884 
1803, Wm. Stull. 13 Jan., 1868 
1805, Elizabeth Weaver. 

15 Aug., 1875 
of Stephen, born July, 1767, died 



Hannah Secord was buried at the Warner burying-ground, 
near St. David's. 




THE SECORD FAMILY. 31 



APPENDIX V. 



When St. David's was burned, 19th July, 18 14, these were 
the losses of Major David Secord : 

I three-story frame house, which had seven fire-places, three 
chimneys. It was a hotel, 22 x 80 feet, with stables and out- 
houses. 

I stone dwelling, two stories, 24 x 30. 

I " " " " 24x60. 

1 grist-mill, stone and timber, 22 x 40, with appurtenances. 
Blacksmith shop and tools. 

New frame bam, 34 x 44, with two fanning mills, and other 
property. 

2 log buildings, 22 x 20. 

1000 lbs. candles, made by contract for British troops, 2s. 
per lb. 

7 horses, 4 cows, 20 fat hogs — from 150 to 200 lbs. each. 

I new wagon and a large yoke of oxen. The wagon was 
loaded with furniture. 

Store of merchant goods, ^500. 

50 tons of wheat, which at that time was ^8 per ton. 

200 sheep and other property. 

Household furniture and family clothing. 

In 1817, flour was $10.00 per barrel. 




32 



THE SECORD FAMILY. 





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Eliiah Secord, 



THE SECORD FAMILY. 



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34 THE SECORD FAMILY. 

APPENDIX VII. 
School Agreement. 

Article of Agreement made the first day of November in the 
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred thirty and one. 
Between Richard H. Secord, of Grantham, of the District of 
Niagara, of the one part, and the undersigned inhabitants, of 
the other part. 

Witnesseth, that for the conditions hereinafter mentioned, 
he, the said Richard H. Secord, doth agree to and with the said 
subscribers for and during the term of three months, commenc- 
ing on Monday the fourteenth instant. He, the said Richard H. 
Secord, shall teach a common day school in the said Township 
of Grantham, and shall faithfully use his best endeavors to teach 
and instruct such pupils as may, in behalf of the subscribers, be 
put under his care and tuition, the following branches of educa- 
tion, viz., Spelling, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, and to 
understand them as far as the space of time and their respective 
capacities will admit. Secondly, He doth engage to maintain 
good order and exercise impartial disciplme in said School, to 
suppress and discountenance all immoral habits and practices 
among his pupils, and to use all reasonable diligence to improve 
their education. Thirdly, for the purpose of teaching he doth 
agree to attend at the School House eleven days in every two 
weeks, from nine o'clock a.m. until four o'clock p.m. for the 
aforesaid term. 

Lastly, if any charge should be brought against the said 
Teacher relative to his conduct in the performance of the duties 
of his school, on his being examined before the Trustees, and 
if found culpable of a misdemeanor, they are at liberty to dis- 
charge him on paying him for whatever space of time he may 
have taught. 

For and in consideration of the due performance of the above 
conditions to us, the subscribers, on the part of the said Richard 



THE SECORD FAMILY. 



35 



H. Secord, we do Promise and Agree to pay him, the said 
Richard H. Secord, the sum of eight shillings and nine pence 
currency per quarter for each pupil subscribed. And further, 
we do engage to furnish him in a school house with suitable 
writing desks, benches, &c., also each subscriber shall furnish 
an equal proportion of firewood (according to the number of 
pupils subscribed) delivered at the school house whenever it 
may be needful for the benefit of the said school. 

Subscribers' Names. 



John Vanevery, 


o 


James Turney, 


I 


John Bessey, 


•7 


Henry C. Ball, 


2 


Nancy Wilson, 


I 


Charles Mundy, 


2 


David Grass, 


-7 


Thomas Wood, 


2 


John Grass, 


n 


Elizabeth Ball, 


I 


William Price, 


I 







The agreement is a remarkable specimen of penmanship. 
There are five varieties of writing in the document, delicate as 
though engraved. 

Lent by Miss Martha Secord, Stamford, Ont. 




CHAPTER III. 
THE INGERSOLL FAMILY. 

Richard Ingersoll was born in Bedfordshire, 
England, in 1600, and came to Salem, Massachusetts, 
in 1629. His descendants have been traced through 
four generations. 

John, a brother of Richard, born in 161 5, came to 
Salem the same year, but not at the same time. He 
was in Hartford, Connecticut, for a short period, 
where he married in 165 1. He removed to North- 
ampton, Massachusetts, where his second marriage 
took place in 1657, and thence to Westfield, Massa- 
chusetts, where he married for the third time in 1667. 
This became his home, for he died there, September 
3rd, 1684. Westfield appears to be the central point 
from which started so many of the families whose 
names were famous in the New England colonies, 
and whose descendants in these later times continue 
keeping in every State of the Union the honored 
names of their ancestors. Westfield is now a thriving 
city of over 25,000 inhabitants. 

John Ingersoll built a house which, with many 
additions and improvements, was standing in 1884. 
It has since been destroyed by fire. It was re- 

36 



THE INGERSOLL FAMILY. 37 

purchased by Chandler Lambert Ingersoll, of Brook- 
lyn, of the eighth generation, in 1857, for a summer 
residence. The gravestones in the burying-ground 
were re-carved by his order, but the tomb of the 
original settler could not be found. On the grave of 
Thomas Ingersoll, a magistrate in Westfield, who 
died in 1748, is the following inscription : 

" This stone stands out to tell 
Where his dust lies ; 
That day will show 
The parts they acted here below." 

This house was called the seat of the ancient aris- 
tocracy. In its early days it was used as a fort, 
where the people resorted for safety at night during 
the Indian troubles. Many traditions were connected 
with it. " Among them, that Greylock, a famous 
Indian chief, who had killed ninety-nine persons, had 
skulked around the place for a long time to kill 
Mrs. Ingersoll, and had nearly succeeded but for 
the timely arrival of her husband, who fired his gun 
while Greylock was trying to scalp her, at which he 
fled and was never seen afterwards." 

Through the history of the United States the 
name of Ingersoll constantly occurs in all the con- 
ditions and avocations of life. — the settler with his 
axe, the mechanic and inventor, the merchant, teacher, 
the singing-master, magistrate, judge, diplomat, his- 
torian, the'; soldier,* the patriot, the exile. The 
record of nine generations and over eight hundred 
names have been followed. The families connected 



38 THE INGERSOLL FAMILY. 

with them by marriage are also from that New Eng- 
land stock which bore their part in the colonial days 
and in the formation of the American Republic. They 
were a long-lived race, and in looking over the 
genealogical records, there are found many men and 
women who lived over ninety years. Thomas and 
David are frequent names among the Ingersoll 
descendants, and the name is sometimes spelled 
Ingersoll. 

Their names, connected with many others, are 
found in all matters pertaining to church, educational 
and municipal affairs. Wherever they lived — and 
you find them all through the colonies — they were 
useful citizens, doing their share in promoting the 
prosperity of the place they had made their home. 

The town of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, was 
settled by families from Westfield in 1724. To form 
the settlement 1 1 5 persons united together, and, 
choosing a committee to represent them, went 
through the usual formalities in regard to the 
acquiring, laying out and settling the land. Two 
tracts ofjland, each to contain nine square miles, 
were purchased, to be laid out on the Housatonic 
River. These were divided into four townships. On 
the 25th of April, 1724, Konkapot and twenty other 
Indians, in consideration of the payment secured to 
them of four hundred and sixty pounds in money, 
three barrels of cider and thirt/ quarts of rum, exe- 
cuted a deed to the committee of the lands above 
mentioned. Among these first settlers are Moses 



THE INGERSOLL FAMILY. 39 

and Thomas Ingersoll. Other Ingersolls followed. 
Peter Ingersoll built a house in 1766, which is still 
standing. A David Ingersoll was among the early 
magistrates, and some extracts from his records as 
Justice of the Peace may be found instructive. The 
stocks and the whipping-post were a common form 
of punishment. 

Aug. 14, 1754- ^ 
The King, j- 
Ag't Eliner Ward | for stealing sundry goods from Mr. John 
Brown. She confest she stole 3 caps and X M. pins. 
Ordered to pay 32 shillings and ye goods ; being 3 fold 
damages and cost, and to be whipt 20 stripes. All were 
performed. 

At a Court before Justices Dwight and Ingersoll, October 
5th, 1754, Samuel Taylor, Junior, and Ebenezer Crowfoot, of 
Pontoosack, complained of for making and spreading a false 
alarm and digging up and scalping an Indian which was 
buried. They confessed themselves to be guilty. Taylor 
ordered to pay a fine of 20 shillings, or be whipped 30 
stripes. Neglected to pay s'd fine and was whipped. Crow- 
foot to pay fine of 13 shillings, 4 pence, to be whipped 20 
stripes. Omitted paying and was whipped. Both to pay 
£b ys 6d, committed until performed. In addition they were 
bound for their good behaviour in the sum of £s each. 

Oct. 7, 1754- 

The French at this time were offering a bounty for 
English scalps, and this false alarm and the effort to 
obtain a bounty for an Indian scalp obtained in this 
manner brought upon them deserved punishment 



40 THE INGERSOLL FAMILY. 

In those days a few had negro slaves. They were 
hired out to work, and " Sophia Green " was sold by 
the same David Ingersoll for ^20. 

A Thomas Ingersoll of the fifth generation, born 
in Westfield in 1749, removed to Great Barrington in 
1774- He married Elizabeth Dewey, daughter of 
Israel Dewey. The Dewey family came from West- 
field also, and there had been intermarriages between 
the families previous to this. The troubled years of 
the Revolution had already commenced. The colonies 
were in a ferment, and the time that was to see the 
formation of another form of government on this 
continent soon arrived. From 1726 to 1775 there 
had been many added to the Ingersoll name. As 
soldiers during the Indian and French wars, they had 
taken their share of danger, and when the Revolu- 
tionary War took place they were on the Continental 
side. One David Ingersoll, a lawyer and a magis- 
trate, remained a Loyalist. Sabine says : " During 
the troubles which had preceded the shedding of 
blood he was seized by a mob, carried to Connecticut, 
and imprisoned. In a second outbreak of the people's 
displeasure his house was assailed. He was driven 
from his home and his enclosures laid waste." He 
mortgaged his property and went to England. He 
married there, and left children at his death in 1796. 
The front door of his house bore the marks of the 
hatchets and swords used at that time. It was after- 
wards used as a young ladies' boarding school. In 



THE INGERSOLL FAMILY. 41 

those days it was not possible to be neutral. Men 
were drafted and compelled to go in person, to find a 
substitute, or pay a fine of ^lo. It is the old story, 
no freedom of speech or thought, everywhere sus- 
picion surrounds, and selfishness and lawlessness 
reign. The lengthy wars of those times bereft the 
people of everything. To those who fell on the 
battle-field, or perished from the hardships of war, 
must be added those who were driven from their 
homes, leaving behind them all their earthly posses- 
sions — glad to escape with their lives. War always 
leaves hard times. Continental money had sunk to 
its lowest depreciation, when it took a punch bowl 
filled with bills to buy a meal, and $72 in paper was 
worth only one of silver. The majority of the people 
were without resources. Work was not to be had. 
Rebellion was again the cry in New England, culmin- 
ating in Shay's rebellion, 1786 and 1787. Captain 
IngersoU gave the new government his assistance in 
putting it down, and for this he was made Major 
IngersoU. 

It was shortly afterwards that Thomas IngersoU 
made arrangements to move to Canada. He was 
a man of enterprise, respected by his fellow-citizens, 
for he had held various town offices. He was a 
lieutenant of militia from 1777 to 1781, when he 
became captain, and after the war a major for four 
years, and at various times performed military ser- 
vice. He never claimed to be a Loyalist. A letter 



42 THE INGERSOLL FAMILY. 

written by his son, James Ingersoll, for many years 
Registrar of Oxford, which appeared in the Wood- 
stock Sentinel-Review, January 31st, 1879, and re- 
printed June 17th, 1899, by request, gives many 
details of his father's removal to Upper Canada. 
Major Ingersoll saw the proclamation of Governor 
Simcoe, offering tracts of land to settlers on easy 
terms. The forests and rivers of Canada with the 
fertile soil were glowingly depicted. Ingersoll made 
up his mind to settle under the old flag and com- 
mence the pioneer life of his ancestors of one hundred 
and fifty years before. He had met the famous Indian 
chief, Joseph Brant, in New York, who promised him, 
if he would come to Canada, to show him the best 
lands for settlement. Brant had already selected for 
the Six Nations the present Mohawk Reservation. 
He advised him to select lands on River La Tranche, 
now called the Thames. Brant, true to his promise, 
sent six of his best young men to show Major Inger- 
soll the lands most desirable for the settler. The 
parties who were willing to join Mr. Ingersoll in this 
venture selected him as their agent in the applica- 
tion for a township. Government was then held at 
Newark. The Order-in-Council was passed March 
23rd, 1793. There were no roads in those days, only 
the Indian trail from Ancaster to Detroit. The 
place selected had been the summer camping-ground 
of the Indians for many years. Work was com- 
menced at once by Mr. Ingersoll and his associates, 



THE INGERSOLL FAMILY. 43 

Mr. Ingersoll with his own hands felling an elm tree 
for the log-house* that was to be his future home. 

The conditions of the grant were that there were 
to be forty settlers, each to have 200 acres or more 
upon the payment of 6d. sterling per acre. The 
balance of the 66,000 acres was to be held in trust 
by Mr. Ingersoll for the benefit of himself and his 
associates by paying the same price, 6d. sterling. 
Arrangements had been made to bring in one 
thousand settlers from New York State, when repre- 
sentations were made to the Home Government 
that such settlers would be injurious to the country 
and deprive others from settling. The order was 
rescinded, and his grant cancelled, as well as those 
of his associates. Between eighty and ninety fam- 
ilies had already settled. Col. Talbot suffered the 
same treatment, a man of whose loyalty there could 
be no possible question. Having influential friends 
in England, he returned home, and by his representa- 
tions and their help Colonel Talbot's rights and lands 
were restored. He advised Mr. Ingersoll to do the 
same, but he had not the time to spare, neither the 
money and friends there to aid. Discouraged, he left 
the settlement in 1805, removing to Etobicoke. We 
find that during the few years he was in Oxford County 
he was appointed Justice of the Peace, and as such 



* On the site of this log-house a brick store on Thames Street, 
occupied by Mr. Poole, was afterwards erected. — Letter of James 
Ingersoll, January 31st, 1879. 



44 THE INGERSOLL FAMILY. 

performed the marriage ceremony. The first Regis- 
trar of Oxford, Mr. Thomas Hornor, was married by 
him in 1801.* His last home was on the River 
Credit,-f- where he died in 1812, leaving a large family, 
whose descendants are found through the length and 
breadth of the Dominion. His eldest son Charles, at 
the time of his father's death, was employed as a 
clerk in the house of Messrs. Racey and McCormick, 
merchants in Oueenston. When the War of 181 2 
commenced, he, along with the late Hon. William 
Hamilton Merritt, raised a troop of dragoons, called 
the Provincial Light Dragoons. Mr. Merritt was 
captain, and Charles Ingersoll lieutenant. They 
served until the end of the war, and received grants 
of land for their services. Charles was at the battles 
of Oueenston and Lundy's Lane. While taking 
despatches to General Proctor, he was present at the 
battle of the River Raison, and came near losing his 
life at that time. After the war was over he com- 
menced business with Mr. McKenna, at the Twelve 
Mile Creek, and was also a business partner of Mr. 
Merritt. He married Anna Maria Merritt in 18 16, a 
sister of his friend and companion in arms. In 18 17 

*Vol. 15, G. Dominion Archives, is found the entry dated 5th 
September, 1805, " Thomas Ingersoll, Captain of the Militia of 
Oxford District."— From Mrs. Curzon, "Life of Laura Secord," 
second edition. 

t The River Credit is so called because the fur traders met the 
Indians on its banks and delivered goods to them on credit. The 
Indian never broke an engagement to pay. If by any accident he 
could not bring the number of beaver skins promised, his friends or 
relations made up the promised number. 



THE INGERSOLL FAMILY. 



45 



he repurchased his father's Oxford farm at sheriff's 
sale. The log-house where James IngersoU was born 
in 1801 was still standing, but in a ruinous condition. 
James IngersoU was the first white child born in 
IngersoU. The brothers went earnestly to work. 
First a saw-mill, then a grist-mill, a store, a potashery 
and distillery were built. Charles IngersoU brought 
his family there iq. 1821. Soon after he became a 
magistrate, postmaster and a Commissioner in the 
Court of Request. He was also appointed Lieut- 
Colonel of the Second Oxford Militia, twice was 
returned member of Parliament, and died in 1832 of 
cholera. His eldest son died at the same time. 
IngersoU was named by him in memory of his father. 
James IngersoU received the appointment of Regis- 
trar on the death of Mr. Hornor, holding that office 
from 1834 until his death, August 9th, 1886, aged 
eighty-five years. 




46 THE INGERSOLL FAMILY. 



APPENDIX VIII. 

Elizabeth Dewey, born 28th Jan., 1758, married 28th Feb., 
1775, died 20th Feb., 1784. 

Children of Thomas Ingersoll and Elizabeth 
Dewey Ingersoll. 

1. Laura (Mrs. Secord), born Dec, 1775, married James 
Secord, died 17th Oct., 1868. 

2. Elizabeth Franks* (Mrs. Pickett), born 17th Oct., 1779, 
married Rev. Daniel Pickett, 15th Jan., 1806, died 15th Aug., 
1811. 

3. Myra (Mrs. Hitchcock), born 1781, married in Canada to 
Mr. Hitchcock, died in Lebanon, Madison County, N.Y., in 
1847. 

4. Abigail (Mrs. Woodworth), born Sept., 1783, married 
Guy Woodworth 9th Sept., 1804, died 27th Feb., 1821. 

Thomas Ingersoll's second wife was Mrs. Mercy Smith, a 
widow. Married Capt. Thos. Ingersoll 26th May, 1785; buried 
1 8th May, 1789. There were no children by this marriage. 

Sarah Whiting, born 26th April, 1762. Married, ist, John 
Backus; 2nd, Thomas Ingersoll, 20th Sept., 1789; died at 
Ingersoll, Ont., 8th Aug., 1832. 

Children of Sarah and Thomas Ingersoll. 

I. Charles Ingersoll, born at Great Barrington, Mass., 27th 
Sept., 1791 ; married Anna Maria Merritt, 5th Sept., i8i6;died 
i8th Aug., 1832. 



* There were "refugees" from Canada in Great Barrington during 
the Revolutionary War. Among them there was a Jacob Vanderheyden 
and a family by the name of Franks, who came from Quebec in 1775. Of 
this family there was a Miss Elizabeth Franks, a young lady and a 
belle, who made her home in the family of Col. Elijah Dwight. She 
married and resided in Vermont. 



THE INGERSOLL FAMILY. 



47 



Charlotte (Mrs. Marigold), born at Great Harrington, 
married Mr. Marigold, died at London, Ont. 

Appy (Mrs. Carroll), born at Great Barrington, April, 
married Mr. Carroll, died at Lakeside, Ont., 12th Jan., 



2. 

1793 

3- 
1794 
1872. 

4. Thomas Ingersoll, born 1796, died at St. Mary's, 1847. 

5. Samuel Ingersoll, died at St. Mary's, 1861. 

6. James Ingersoll, born loth Sept., 1801 ; married Cath- 
arine Macnab, 1848; died at Woodstock, 9th Aug., 1886. 

7. Sarah (Mrs. Mittlebergher), born loth Jan., 1807 ; mar- 
ried Henry Mittlebergher, of St. Catharines ; died at St. 
Catharines 17th Nov., 1826. 




CHAPTER IV. 

LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 

Mr. Sabine, the biographer of the U. E. LoyaHsts, 
says : 

" Men who, like these, separate themselves from their friends 
and kindred, who are driven from their homes, who become 
outlaws, wanderers and exiles, such men leave i^^N memorials 
behind, their papers are scattered and lost, and their names 
pass from human recollection." 

If this is true of men, in narrating the Hves of 
women who have performed heroic deeds the narra- 
tor encounters still greater difficulties. The scanty 
records of their youth tell us little of the influences 
that developed and formed their character ; and the 
exciting period in which they lived, crowded with 
remarkable events, prevented the just appreciation of 
their services. Even at this late day there is a little- 
ness which would like to ignore the importance and 
dignity of the work. But if the past is discouraging, 
there is hope that in the years to come the search- 
light of history will be turned on woman's work, so 
that what she has done, and what she can do, will 
receive due recognition and be valued as it deserves. 

Thomas Ingersoll, the father of Laura Ingersoll 

48 




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W 






CJ 



x. 



< ^ 



:d 









LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 49 

Secord, removed from Westfield, Massachusetts, to 
Great Barrington, in the same State, in 1774. He 
married February 28th, 1775, EHzabeth, daughter of 
Israel Dewey. Land was purchased, a home built, 
and Mr. IngersoU commenced business. This house, 
built in 1782, is still standing. It is on the east side 
of Main Street. The lot is large, being five-eighths 
of an acre. It was larger in Major Ingersoll's time, 
containing between four and five acres, and running 
back to the Housatonic River. A street has been 
taken off the southerly side. The house is broad 
and low, and has been renovated and somewhat re- 
modelled in later years. The glass panes in the 
windows were formerly 6x8 inches. The property 
is now owned bv the town, and is called the Great 
Barrington Free Library and Reading Room. A 
house in the background, at the extreme right, was 
formerly the shop of Major IngersoU, and is on a side 
street. 

Elizabeth Dewey was born January 28th, 1758, and 
was but seventeen years of age at the time of her 
marriage ; she died February 20th, 1784, leaving four 
daughters. Laura, the eldest, was only eight years 
old at the time of her mother's death. Elizabeth 
Franks, the second daughter, married Mr. Pickett, 
and died in Canada. .Myra, the third daughter, was 
married in Canada to Mr. Hitchcock, and after a few 
years returned to the United States. Abigail, the 
youngest, at the time of her mother's death was 



50 LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 

adopted by her aunt, Mrs. Nash, and afterwards mar- 
ried Guy Woodworth, of Vermont. 

Mr. Ingersoll married, May 26th, 1785, Mrs. Mercy 
Smith, the widow of Josiah Smith. There were no 
children by this marriage. She was buried May 1 8th, 
1789. Both the marriage and burial are recorded by 
the Rev. Gideon Bostwick,* who was the first Episco- 
pal clergyman in Great Barrington. Little is known 
of the second Mrs. Ingersoll, but there are letters 
wherein she signs herself " Your affectionate step- 
mother, Mercy Ingersoll " ; another where Mr. Inger- 
soll's name is mentioned, and signed in the same 
manner. Thomas Ingersoll married, September 20th, 
1789, Sally Backus, widow of John Backus. Mrs. 
Backus was the daughter of Gamaliel Whiting, and 
sister of General John Whiting. The Whitings came 
from Westfield, and there had been marriages between 
the Ingersolls and Whitings. The old homestead of 
the Whitings was purchased by the town of Great 
Barrington for a town hall, and a monument to the 
soldiers who fell in the late Civil War stands upon the 
hearth-stone, which has never been removed. Mrs. 
Backus had one daughter by her first husband, called 



* Previous to the Revolution the Documentary Records of the Colo- 
nies furnish abundant materials for the historian. During that time 
they were imperfectly kept, and sometimes ceased altogether. Fortu- 
nately, the church registrations kept by the Rev. Gideon Bostwick, of 
Great Barrington, the first Episcopal minister settled there, are con- 
tinuous. He was one of the applicants for land with Mr. Ingeisoll, 
but died before the arrangements were consummated. Two of his sons 
eame to Canada. One was Sheriff of Norfolk, and another, Colonel 
Bostwick, lived at Port Stanley. 



LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 51 

Nancy, who married a Mr. McKinstry, a name promi- 
nent in American annals. Mrs. McKinstry died in 
Cairo, Egypt. Of the girlhood of Laura IngersoU 
scarcely a memory remains ; of her sisters, also, few 
records are left. This much can be safely said, that 
Laura and Elizabeth were old enough to receive 
impressions that could never be effaced. War leaves 
memories that do not pass away. Great Barrington 
was on the highway where soldiers were passing to 
and from the war. Prisoners were also sent there. 
Among them, sick and dispirited, came General Bur- 
goyne, after his surrender at Saratoga. With him 
were Baron Riedesel, the Hessian commander, and 
many English officers. Her father's experiences had 
been many. He had taken the Continental side, 
along with the numerous Ingersolls whose home was 
in Great Barrington. 

The days' of the Revolution had passed away ; the 
reaction which follows war took place. A depreciated 
currency, lack of business and work — for the soldier 
does not readily go back to the toil and monotony of 
the farm — insurrection in Massachusetts and Penn- 
sylvania, were taxing the capacity of the builders ot 
the new nation to the utmost. Thomas IngersoU, 
who had risen from the ranks to be major, suffered, 
with many of his friends, from these discouragements, 
and they were willing to make new homes on the 
fertile Canadian lands. 

It is at the sale of her father's property in Great 
Barrington, preparatory to bringing his family to 



52 LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 

Canada, that Laura IngersoU's name first appears in 
history.* On January nth, 1793, she, with Mr. Ives, 
witnessed the sale. Two years later, on April 21st, 
1795, she is again a witness with Heber Chase, at the 
relinquishment by her stepmother, Sally Backus Inger- 
soll, of her rights in her husband's property. These 
records are valuable, as showing their preparations to 
come to Canada. They lived in Oxford County, where 
is now the town of Ingersoll. James Ingersoll was five 
years old when his father removed to the County of 
York. Four of the children by the third marriage were 
born in Great Barrington, and three in Canada. At 
the final sale of the property in Great Barrington 
Laura Ingersoll must have been in her twentieth 
year. It is more than probable that she came with 
her father before the other members of the family. 

Of Laura IngersoU's early life in Canada, the date 
of her arrival, and her marriage to Mr. Secord, nothing 
can be found. Probably the marriage took place soon 
after her arrival here. Her granddaughter. Miss L. 
Louisa Smith, of Guelph, says she lived at St. David's 
a short time after her marriage, and there are records 
showing James Secord was living at Oueenston in 
1802. Everything shows that James Secord shared 
in the prosperity of that time. He was a successful 
merchant, and they kept two colored servants. 

The Secords were a numerous race, and were U. E. 
Loyalists, not settlers. Being among the earliest 
arrivals, they received lands in the Niagara District, 

* See Appendix X. 



LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 53 

and were among the most prominent and prosperous 
people. An old ledger, dating from 1806 through 
1807, 1808, and part of 1809, shows that they were 
living in Queenston at that time. Mr. James 
Secord's name frequently occurs, and the entries 
show that they were for articles of household use 
and what women wear. As they are read over, 
paper and quills are of frequent mention. The arti- 
cles of dress are expensive. There are slippers and 
fine hose. The dress of that period for common use 
was a petticoat and short gown, the skirt of stuff 
goods, the short gown of calico and expensive, being 
worth from $1.00 to $1.50 per yard. All other goods 
were high in price. Mr. Secord was a merchant also, 
and it can easily be seen that there was an exchange 
of goods. 

We can little imagine the dismay of the people as 
the war-cloud dimmed and overspread the sky. 
Nearly thirty years of peace had changed the wilder- 
ness to fertile fields and orchards. The log cabin 
had given place to ample stone and brick houses, 
many of which still remain as testimony to the 
industry and prosperity of the settler. Niagara was 
the social and military centre ; Queenston was the 
head of navigation, where the merchandise from 
Montreal was transhipped to the remotest settle- 
ments. Her own relatives and her husband's were 
among the most influential of the people. A Miss 
Secord, of Niagara, was called the belle of Canada. 
The name of a Miss Ingersoll is given among the 



54 LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 

belles in the period from 1792 to 1800, and we have 
often asked ourselves, was it Laura Ingersoll ? 
Perhaps some future searchers among the records of 
those times will be able to give the answer. Of the 
causes of the war it is needless to write. On that 
memorable morning of the 1 3th of October, 1 8 1 2, when 
the invaders crossed the Niagara River, General Brock 
rose very early. His colored servant, as he assisted 
him to put on his sword, said, " You are very early, 
sir." "Yes, but the Yankees are earlier," was the 
reply. With a small staff he hurried to Queenston 
to direct and inspire his followers. The attack, and 
his death in the early morn, are a part of Canadian 
history. Laura Secord's husband was one of those 
who bore the remains of the dead warrior from the 
field to the house where they remained until the after- 
noon, when they were removed to Niagara. The next 
attack was followed by the death of Colonel Mac- 
donnell. At the close of the third and last attack in 
the afternoon, word was conveyed to Mrs. Secord 
that her husband was wounded and lying on the hill- 
side. She hurried to the spot. What follows is best 
told by her grandson, the late James B. Secord : 

Just as she reached the spot three American soldiers came 
up, and two, of them raised their muskets to ckib him to death. 
My grandmother rushed in between them, telHng them to kill 
her and spare her husband. One of them spoke very roughly 
and told her to get out of the way, and, shoving her to one side, 
was about to accomplish his murderous intention. Captain 
Wool, coming up at that moment, sternly inquired how they 
dared attempt such a thing, called them cowards, sent them to 



LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 55 

Lewiston under guard, where afterwards they were tried by 
court-martial and sentenced to several months' imprisonment 
for their breach of discipline. Captain Wool ordered a party 
of his men to take Mr. Secord to his own house in Queenston, 
and did not even make him a prisoner on parole. After his 
promotion, and when he had risen to the rank of colonel, he 
several times visited my grandfather, and their friendship 
continued until my grandfather's death. 

It is pleasant, amid the cruelties of war, to record 
the kindness of a brave and honorable foe. 

At the time when the great exploit of Laura 
Secord was performed, Niagara and Queenston were 
in possession of the American forces. Few of the 
inhabitants remained in Queenston. The order of 
General Dearborn (American commander), " that 
every man of the serviceable military age should be 
considered and treated as a prisoner of war," had 
deprived the homes of helpers and protectors. From 
Niagara to Fort Erie scouting parties had gone in 
every direction. Within two days nearly two hundred 
persons were arrested and sent as prisoners to the 
United States. Among them were the Rev. Mr. 
Addison, the first rector of St. Mark's, Niagara, six 
of the leading merchants, lawyers and others. Jacob 
Ball was taken from his bed at night. Men working 
in the fields, many too old and many too young for 
service, and men helpless from wounds, were sent 
away. General Vincent had evacuated Fort George 
and retreated to Burlington Heights, at the head of 
Lake Ontario. When evacuating Fort George, the 
guns were spiked and the ammunition destroyed. The 



56 LAURA mCERSOLL SECORD. 

military records of the fort, as well as FitzGibbon's 
private papers, were destroyed at that time. Previ- 
ous to this a depot of provisions and ammunition had 
been formed near the Beaver Dams. By General 
Vincent's orders these were deposited in a stone house 
occupied by Mr. De Cew. 

Colonel Bisshopp had retreated from Chippewa and 
Fort Erie, placing De Haren at the Ten Mile Creek, 
where there was a junction of three roads, and his 
own command at Jordan. These positions materially 
interfered with the enemy, compelling them to live 
on their own resources. Lieutenant FitzGibbon was 
well known throughout the country as a man of 
valor and discretion, remarkably self-reliant and 
resourceful, and an adept in military strategy. He 
was well known also as the faithful companion and 
friend of the lamented General Brock. Soliciting 
the privilege of raising a volunteer company of fifty 
men, to be used as scouts,* the permission was 
granted, and on the 13th June, within three days, the 
number was made up. He was obliged to decline 
the services of many who desired to be under his 
command. To these, two days after, there was 
added a party of Caughnawaga Indians, under Cap- 
tain Ducharme, of nearly one hundred and sixty men. 
FitzGibbon's headquarters were at the stone house, 
formerly mentioned, of Captain De Cew (after whom 

*The jackets worn by FitzGibbon's scouts were red on one side and 
grey on the other, and reversible. They used cow bells to signal 
instead of bugles. FitzGibbon himself could give an Irish yell or an 
Indian war-whoop. They were constantly on the alert. — "Veteran 
of 1S12." 




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LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 57 

the falls are named), and who was at that time a 
prisoner in the United States.* De Haren was at the 
Ten Mile Creek with some Indians and men from 
New Brunswick. Throughout the peninsula there 
were only about sixteen hundred troops. They were 
in rags, many without shoes and often in want of 
food, yet they were ever ready to face the enemy. 

From the time the volunteers came under Fitz- 
Gibbon's command their work commenced, ever on 
the alert by day, and never sleeping twice in the same 
place. On the 20th they had a skirmish with the 
Americans at Niagara Falls. The next day they were 
at Chippewa and Point Abino, then to Lundy's Lane, 
where FitzGibbon had a narrow escape. Ducharme 
and his Indians were equally busy. They had been 
near Fort George more than once, killing men and 
making prisoners. Annoyed beyond measure at their 
audacity, the American commander determined by a 
vigorous blow to dislodge FitzGibbon and overawe the 
inhabitants. At a council of war in Niagara, on the 
1 8th of June,f Colonel Boerstler, of Maryland, a man 
distinguished for gallant services, was selected, him- 
self being present. Under his command were placed 
six hundred and thirty men, a company of light 
artillery, two field-pieces, mounted infantry, and a 
troop of dragoons. 

At Mrs. Secord's house, in Queenston, some of the 
American officers were billeted. On the 23rd of 



* The story of Captain De Cew's escape is given in the " History of 
Thorold Township." 

i" Vide James B. Secord. 



58 LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 

June Boerstler dined with them. They talked freely 
of their plans, and of the importance of securing the 
Beaver Dams as a base of operations, whereby a 
large force could be concentrated to advance on 
Burlington Heights. The capture of P'^itzGibbon 
was to be the commencement of the enterprise. 
" That position once captured," said Colonel Boerstler, 
" Upper Canada is ours." He spoke truly, and mili- 
tary men of the present day acknowledge it was 
worth the venture. 

Laura Secord was a quiet but eager listener. When 
Bcerstler returned to Niagara to assume the com- 
mand, and the other officers left her house to perform 
their allotted part, she consulted with her husband on 
the best course to pursue. For Mr. Secord to go was 
impossible, and there was no one else to send. The 
decision was soon made, for she was a woman of action 
and of few words. Said her niece, Mrs. Gregory : 

" On that ever-to-be-remembered morning, Aunt left her 
home before daylight* (the cow and the milk-pail are a fable), 
and came to St. David's, and rested at Grandma'st for a few 
minutes, and then left, Aunt Elizabeth Secord accompanying 
her as far as St. Catharines — then called Shipman's Corners; 
— after which she proceeded on her way alone. I never heard 
Mrs. Neville's name in connection with the affair until I read it 

* On June 24th the sun rises at 4.36. She reached St. David's as 
the sun was rising. 

t Mrs. Stephen Secord. 

X Mrs. Shipman came from New Jersey, a distance of over 500 
miles, on horseback, with her children. The first name of St. Cath- 
arines, Shipman's Corners, was in memory of her family. It was 
where the Imperial Bank now stands. 




FITZGIBBON'S IlKAIxjUARTEkS, I .S93. 



LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 59 

in a sketch copied from the Methodist Magazifie. I remember 
well of sitting, in childish astonishment and terror, listening to 
Aunt and Grandma talking over the affair, and of hearing her 
relate the fears she entertained of meeting and being taken 
prisoner by the American Indians before she had reached the 
British lines, and given the information she was perilling free- 
dom and life itself to give. She did not seem to think she 
had done more than a sacred duty." 

From Niagara to the Beaver Dams by way of 
Queenston is between seventeen and eighteen miles ; 
from Queenston to Beaver Dams between twelve and 
thirteen. 

The Beaver Dams before the settlement of Upper 
Canada was a place where those ingenious and clever 
animals, the beavers, had constructed dams and made 
this their resort. The place was surrounded by beech 
woods. These were long visited by the curious, and 
those wishing to see the engineering skill of the indus- 
trious animal that is conspicuous on our national arms. 
In Boerstler's plan of attack* the artillery was to take 
the main road ; the other detachments, marching by 
different roads, were to meet and join in the attack 
upon FitzGibbon, while a portion were to attack De 
Haren and hold him in check at the Ten Mile Creek, 
thus preventing his assisting FitzGibbon. It was 
this portion of the plan, never carried out, that caused 
Mrs. Secord so much difficulty, and extended the 
distance for her to travel. The fear of being inter- 



* In the " Veteran of 1812 " is a map used by Colonel Boerstler at 
the court which exonerated him from blame for the disaster. 



60 LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 

cepted at the Ten Mile Creek kept her from taking 
the direct road. 

Such was the situation on the evening of the 23rd 
of June. The advance guard of the enemy had 
reached Oueenston. Silence had been enjoined, no 
lights or fires allowed, patrols thrown out,* and 
pickets placed to prevent information of the move- 
ment being given. With a hurried farewell to her 
husband and children, Mrs. Secord took her fate 
in her hands, and went forth with the inspiration 
which comes when duty calls. It was before the early 
light of the summer morn, and long before the last 
of Boerstler's troops had halted at Oueenston, when 
she started on her way. Her brother, Charles Inger- 
soll, was lying dangerously ill at St. David's, and 
this excuse satisfied the sentinel for her early trip. 
He was at the house of her sister-in-law, the widow 
of Stephen Secord, at the south-east end of the vil- 
lage. She was there but a few minutes, but in that 
brief time resisted all persuasions to change her 
purpose, and induced her niece, Elizabeth Secord,f 
to go with her. This she did as far as Shipman's 
Corners, where her feet became so sore she was 
unable to proceed farther. From that point Mrs. 
Secord's journey was performed alone. It had been 
a very rainy season, the streams were swollen, and 
where the rude bridge had been swept away, on her 
hands and knees she crept over on a fallen tree. To 

* The first sentry was at her own gate. — Vide Mrs. Dunn, 
t Elizabeth Secord died at Napanee the following year. 




PLACE WHERE THE IXDLVNS ENCAAH-ED. 



LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 61 

avoid danger she had to recross the stream more 
than once, and to travel beyond the ordinary route. 
As she neared the vicinity of FitzGibbon, in coming 
up a steep bank, she came upon the Indians who 
were encamped there. They sprang to their feet 
upon her appearance, with piercing cries demanding 
to know " What white woman wanted ? " Though 
terrified, her presence of mind did not forsake her, but 
to the last years of her life she never could speak of 
that time without emotion. They were Caughnawa- 
gas, and did not understand English. With difficulty 
the Chief, who partially understood English, at last 
comprehended that she had a message of importance 
for FitzGibbon, and must see him. It was seven 
o'clock in the morning when she came upon the 
Indian encampment. After what seemed a long de- 
tention she was at last conducted to FitzGibbon, and 
told him of the coming attack. There was no waste 
of words on either side ; FitzGibbon recognized the 
danger, and his arrangements were promptly made. 

Ducharme asked permission to post his men at a 
ravine in the beech woods, which only the day before 
had fixed his attention as a good place for an ambus- 
cade. FitzGibbon gave the desired permission, and 
he with his twenty-five Caughnawagas and sixteen 
Mohawks started on a run for the desired spot. 
Lieutenant Jarvis, who saw the exhausted condition 
of Mrs. Secord, brought her a drink of water, and 
FitzGibbon, as soon as the disposition of his men was 
made, sent her to Mr. Turney's as a place of safety, 



62 LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 

where, as she graphically expressed it, " I slept 
right off." Very soon after the Indian scouts came 
rushing in, with loud cries announcing Boerstler's 
approach. Thanks to Mrs. Secord, every preparation 
had been made, and FitzGibbon rode two miles down 
the road to see the advancing lines of the enemy.* 
Soon after nine Bcerstler appeared, and the action 
commenced at ten. The weather was intensely hot, 
and as he neared the ravine the Indians kept up an 
incessant firing from the woods. The artillery made 
ineffectual efforts to drive them out. Their repeated 
attempts to march forward were baffled, and Bcerstler 
changed his direction, to everywhere meet an invisible 
enemy. He was wounded twice, his horse was killed, 
his men were falling on every side, his officers dis- 
abled, and no advantage gained. He retreated to a 
hollow, where for a while they were partially shel- 
tered. Then the Indians pressed forward with exult- 
ing shouts. Bcerstler had conducted himself bravely, 
but he knew that aid for FitzGibbon would soon 
arrive ; he was no longer on the offensive, but the 
defensive. FitzGibbon saw his advantage, and brought 
up his troops which he had held in reserve. Bcerstler 
rallied his men once more, placed his wounded in 

* The Beaver Dam is at least three miles from De Cew's house, and 
the falls are only a short distance beyond the house, which is of stone, 
and was selected by General Vincent. Thither the ammunition and 
other supplies were removed for safety, as the house could not be taken 
without artillery. If FitzGibbon rode two miles after his arrangements 
were made, and saw Boerstler approaching, it must then have been nine 
o'clock, for Brerstler says the action commenced at ten. Ba?rstler 
never reached the Beaver Dams nor De Cew's house, only the neigh- 
borhood of both. 



LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 63 

wagons, and with his artillery commenced to retreat* 
Captain Hall, of the Provincial Cavalry, arrived at this 
time, and three Kelly brothers, who had been work- 
ing in a hay-field at some distance, and had heard 
the firing, seized their muskets and hurried to the 
beech woods, picking up eight or ten more of the 
militia on the way. The Americans were at the last 
in David Miller's apple orchard, and there Boerstler 
surrendered. ■{- 

BcRrstler was surrounded, and FitzGibbon thought 
if he could be detained for a little while the capture 
would be effected without further blood being shed. 
Captain Hall was instructed to personate De Haren, 
and was sent forward with a flag of truce. A soldier 
of the 49th was to personate Colonel Bisshopp. 
Boerstler was unnerved by defeat and the pain of 
his wounds. It was represented to him, in the 
strongest language possible, how difficult it would be 
to hold the Indians in check. Some frightful 
examples of recent date were recalled to his memory, 
and while they were being told, FitzGibbon's troops 
were marched and remarched across the field.ij: 
Boerstler asked time to decide. This was refused. 



* Bcersller sent to General Dearborn for reinforcements, and 300 
men were sent under Colonel Christie. They reached Queenston, but, 
hearing of Boerstlers surrender, returned to Fort George. The force 
that was to have made an attack upon De Haren and hold him there, 
did not reach the Ten Mile Creek. 

t Note 36, page 192, Mrs. Curzon. 

X "We frightened the enemy," says Judge Jarvis, "with our In- 
dians and from sounding the bugle in different positions, to make them 
suppose we were numerous and had them surrounded." 



64 LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 

and five minutes only were given. FitzGibbon was 
more than anxious to have the surrender accom- 
pHshed before the arrival of superior officers, De 
Haren with reinforcements being immediately 
expected. The terms of the capitulation had 
scarcely been accepted before De Haren arrived, 
and it took considerable strategy on FitzGibbon's 
part to finish the work that thus far he had so 
successfully carried out.* The late Judge Jarvis 
(then Lieutenant) said in after years, " When the 
Yankees did surrender we wondered what Fitz- 
Gibbon was going to do with them." Boerstler 
said the action lasted three hours and ten minutes. 
The surrender took place at 4 p.m. FitzGibbon's 
ruse proved successful, and the articles of capitula- 
tion were signed. Thirty Americans had been killed 
and sixty wounded. Ducharme had fifteen Indians 
killed and twenty-five wounded. In addition, there 
were surrendered the colors of the 14th United 
States Infantry, two cannons, two baggage wagons, 
and five hundred stand of arms, as substantial tokens 
of the victory. No massacre stained its laurels. 
To Ducharme and his Indian allies belongs the 
glory of the fight ; to FitzGibbon the tact, skill and 
humanity which made the victory so great. Many 
years after, in constructing the new Welland Canal, 
the burial-place of the dead was discovered. The 
remains were carefully gathered, and a stone obelisk 

* The capitulation was signed by De Haren, but everything was 
prearranged by FitzGibbon. 



LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 65 

marks the spot where our Indian friends and the 
invading foe sleep their long sleep together. 

The effect of the victory at Beaver Dams, com- 
bined with the previous successful night attack by- 
Colonel Harvey at Stony Creek, on June 5th, when 
the enemy were driven back to Niagara, and two of 
their generals,* Winder and Chandler, captured, had 
a most inspiring effect throughout the country. The 
enemy thereafter was compelled to keep within his 
entrenchments, and though there was frequent skir- 
mishing, few gains were made by the Americans. 
The farmers who were left, and the volunteers who 
could be spared, returned to their homes to gather, 
as well as their limited numbers permitted, the har- 
vest and fruits of the year, though much remained 
unreaped and ungathered for want of hands. 

Laura Secord returned from the house of Mr. 
Turney to her home, happy in the knowledge that 
her sacred duty had been performed. No words of 
pride or triumph crossed her lips. The grandson 
who has been previously quoted, says : " She was a 
modest and unassuming woman, and did not attach 
the importance to her exploit that it merited." 
Neither at that time would it have been wise to have 
given it publicity. Queenston, as most other places 
on the frontier, was one day in possession of the 
invading troops, perhaps the next in that of their 
defenders. Darker days were yet in store for Canada, 



Lieutenants Ingersoll and McKenna took them to Quebec. 
5 



66 LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 

deeds of relentless cruelty, followed by swift and 
remorseless retribution. The foe was driven back to 
his own land, but before he left Niagara was laid in 
ashes. On the loth of December, 1813, in the midst 
of a snow-storm, and at only an hour's notice, the 
terrible order was given. On the 19th day of July, 
-.1814, St. David's, where the first years of her married 
life were passed, met the same fate as Niagara. She 
saw the homes of her kindred, the labors of thirty 
years, swept away, while their owners were prisoners 
or serving on the various battle-fields. These years of 
warfare tested her discretion and courage to the 
utmost. 

Mrs. Curzon gives the following, which is quite 
characteristic of her quickness of speech when 
moved : 

" Three Americans called at her house in Queenston to ask 
for water. One of them said, ' When we come for good to 
this country we'll divide the land, and I'll take this here for my 
share.' Mrs. Secord was so nettled by the thought expressed 
that, although the men were civil and respectful, she replied 
sharply, ' You scoundrel, all you'll ever get here will be six feet 
of earth.' When they were gone her heart reproached her for 
her heat, because the men had not molested her property. Two 
days after the men returned. They said to Mrs. Secord, 'You 
were right about the six feet of earth, missus.' The third man 
had been killed." 

Mr. H. C. Mewburn, of Stamford, heard Mrs. 
Secord tell the same story. 

Her granddaughter. Miss Smith, already quoted, 
relates that she saved a number of gold doubloons in 



LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 67 

a copper kettle which was hanging over the fire. 
Miss Smith still possesses the tea-kettle, which is 
more than one hundred years old. 

Another incident, related by her granddaughter, 
Mrs. Cockburn, probably occurred about this time. 

Mr. Secord had received quite a large sum of money, which 
by some means must have become known. One night soon 
after, when she was alone with her young children, and only a 
colored boy called Bob and a colored girl called Fan in the 
house, a man appeared asking admittance, saying he was 
pursued. My grandmother refused to admit him at that time 
of night. Then he said he could and would come in. Chang- 
ing her voice to an Irish brogue, she threatened to set the dog 
upon him. The colored boy was told to growl like a dog, 
which it seems he could do to perfection. The man went 
away, but soon returned, when my grandmother presented an 
old horse-pistol, telling him she would shoot if he did not leave. 
He went off declaring he would yet get in. Grandmother after- 
wards heard that a desperate character had been seen around 
the village at the time the money was received. 

When the war ended, and the welcome days of 
peace came, and the prisoners returned to their 
homes, her eldest daughter was married to Dr. 
Trumbull, assistant surgeon of the 17th Regiment. 
The engagement took place during the war, and the 
marriage followed, April i8th, 18 16. Her brother, 
Charles Ingersoll, was married the same year to 
Sarah Maria, sister of the late Hon. W. H. Merritt, 
his companion in arms. Both of these marriages are 
recorded in the parish register of St. Mark's Church, 
Niagara. Having gone to Jamaica, in the West Indies. 
Dr. Trumbull died there. Mrs. Trumbull, with her 



68 LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 

two daughters, visited her mother before she went 
to Ireland, which she made her home. Mary Trum- 
bull, the eldest, never married. Elizabeth Trumbull, 
the second daughter, married Mr. Davis, President of 
the Bank of Ireland in Belfast. 

Four of Mrs. Secord's daughters were married while 
she lived in Queenston. Of two of these marriages 
the date has not been found. One daughter, Char- 
lotte, never married, and died at Guelph. Appollonia 
died at the early age of eighteen, and was probably 
buried at St. David's, in the burying-ground given 
by Major Secord. Harriet Secord married David 
William Smith, a lawyer, November 23rd, 1824. This 
marriage, by license, was performed at Queenston 
by Rev. Mr. Turney, Chaplain of the forces ; it is 
also entered in the St. Mark's Parish Register. Mr. 
Smith practised law at St. Catharines, and, dying 
there, was buried at Fort Erie ; Mrs. Smith died at 
Guelph. Hannah Cartwright married a Mr. Williams, 
from England. After his death she married a Mr. Car- 
thew, who was also an Englishman. Their home was 
in Guelph, and they are buried there. Mrs. Secord's 
only son, Charles Badeau, married Margaret, daugh- 
ter of W. Robins, of New York, who had been in the 
English service, but the number of his regiment is not 
known. This son Charles lived for many years in the 
house where General Brock was taken for a few hours 
before the removal to Fort George. He was Regis- 
trar of the Surrogate Court at Niagara, dying there 
in 1872, leaving two sons and one daughter. Occa- 



LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 69 

sionally we come upon traces of Laura Secord's life 
in Queenston. We find — 

On the 14th July, 1817, Thomas Dickson, of Queenston, 
Merchant, conveyed the Thorburn Homestead property to 
James Secord, Merchant, for ^25. 

On the 4th December, 1817, James Secord and his wife 
Laura conveyed the same land to Samuel Street, for $625. 

Mr. James Secord received a pension for his ser- 
vices at Queenston, and an appointment in the Cus- 
toms Department at Chippewa. The year of his 
removal from Queenston has not been obtained. An 
incident of Mrs. Secord's hfe in Chippewa is related 
by her granddaughter, Mrs. Cockburn : 

" My grandmother was a woman of strong personality and 
character, and her word carried great weight with it, as the 
following incident will show. Upon one occasion a negro in 
whom she was interested was very ill with the smallpox. Of 
course there were no isolated hospitals in those days, the 
patient having to be treated at home, precautions being taken 
to prevent the contagion from spreading. Grandma heard 
that the doctor intended smothering the poor negro, and accord- 
ingly challenged him as to those reports. He admitted the 
charge, saying at the same time, ' He is only a nigger and not 
much account anyway.' 'As sure as you do,' my grandmother 
answered, 'I will have you indicted for murder.' This seemed 
to set him thinking, and putting forth renewed efforts he pulled 
the poor fellow through, who, in after years, testified his grati- 
tude in many ways for the saving his life. She was a great 
favorite with young people, who, on returning from school for 
their holidays, would say, after a brief time in the house, 
' Now, we must go and see Mrs. Secord.' " 



70 LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 

Mrs. Secord's home in Queenston was well back 
from the street and on rising ground. It was a frame 
building. A niece of her husband's says that both 
sides of the path were thickly set with roses. The 
hand of the renovator has done its work. Fortunately 
a sketch of the place in water-colors was taken the 
year previous to its renovation. The house in Chip- 
pewa, fronting the river, where her last years were 
spent, has also been renovated, but the front of the 
house, the small glass in the front windows, and the 
porch still remain. The large stone house built by 
De Cew in 1810 is in good preservation, and can 
stand the storms for many a year to come. It is 
nearly a century since it was built. The walls are 
very thick ; the casings of the windows in the hall, the 
wainscotting, and the stairs also are of solid walnut. 
The frieze and casing of the windows in what was 
the drawing-room show that it was a handsome as 
well as a convenient house. 

Mr. and Mrs. Secord were living in Chippewa when 
the rebellion of 1837 took place ; it must have recalled 
the scenes of Laura's earlier days. Here were the 
headquarters of Colonel (afterwards Sir) Allan Mc- 
Nab, and from this same place went Captain Drew 
to cut out and burn^the steamer Caroline. It was the 
beacon light at the mouth of the Chippewa Creek- 
only a short distance from her home — that guided 
him to and from the night's adventure. 

When the great gathering took place at Queenston 



LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. *j\ 

Heights, July 30th, 1840, to take measures for the 
reconstruction of Brock's monument, destroyed by 
Benjamin Lett, April 17th, 1840, Mr. Secord spent 
the night with his brother. Major David Secord, at 
St. David's. Mr. James Secord, Major Secord and 
Mr. William Kirby (the author of " Chien d'Or," who 
was then a young man living at St. David's), went to 
and returned from Oueenston together. The War of 
1 812 was the principal topic of their conversation, yet, 
strange to say, neither her husband nor his brother 
made the slightest allusion to Mrs. Secord's heroic 
deed. Mr. Secord died at Chippewa, 22nd February, 
1 84 1, and was buried at Lundy's Lane. With his life 
the pension ceased. Mrs. Secord never received any 
recompense from the Canadian Government. Twenty- 
seven years of widowhood were to follow—a long 
struggle with limited means, and many bereavements 
to herself and daughters, borne on her part with un- 
complaining patience, grateful for help, and but sel- 
dom asking for it. How grateful she was, and how 
kmdness touched her heart, is well told in this inci- 
dent : A nephew of her husband's had to the last 
years of his life been exceedingly kind. With tears 
she used to put her old arms about his neck and 
say, "You have been more than son or brother 
to me." 

In i860 the Prince of Wales visited Canada, and 
spent several days at Niagara Falls, occupyino- the 
residence of the Jate Samuel Zimmerman, which had 



72 LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 

been specially refurnished for himself and suite. On 
Sunday he attended church at Chippewa. During 
his stay at Niagara Falls a petition was presented for 
his approval, and Mrs. Secord's name being the only 
woman's name upon the petition, the Prince made 
inquiry as to its being there. When he was told of 
her meritorious action, he continued his inquiry in 
regard to her circumstances, and sent her a check for 
^loo sterling. This was the first and only remuner- 
ation she ever received for her services, and is gladly 
mentioned as one of the kindly acts of the eldest son 
of our beloved Queen Victoria. The first time her 
brave act had been recognized as worthy of notice 
was \n the Anglo-American Magazine, Vo\. III. In 
the November number of 1853, was a report of the 
action at Beaver Dams, one of a series of articles 
upon the War of 1812. Mrs. Secord's narrative was 
given and the certificate of FitzGibbon which estab- 
lished the fact, and elicited her grateful thanks. 
Even then some doubted, and as time passed along 
some denied its truth. 

Her life commenced with the Revolution, her father 
and kindred fighting for the Republic, while her 
future husband and his mother were among the first 
fugitives to find safety in Canada. The son of the 
refugee and the daughter of the settler were united 
by marriage, and participating in the War of 181 2, 
gave invaluable services to their country. Together 
they saw the beginning and end of the rebellion. 



LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 73 

The year 1866 brought the Fenian Raid, and her 
brave heart must have beat with quickened throb, 
and the old eyes gleamed with their youthful fire, as 
she saw among the volunteers many of the old names 
of her kindred hastening through Chippewa to Fort 
Erie. 

The great age attained by Mrs. Secord had been 
years of loneliness and bereavement. Of the large 
family of brothers, sisters and step-sisters but four 
survived her. Among those of her husband's rela- 
tives who had been her companions in the trials of 
more than three-quarters of a century, there were 
none remaining. 

On the 17th of October, 1868, at the age of ninety- 
three, 

" Life dropped the distaff from the hands serene, 

And loving neighbors smoothed the careful shroud, 
While death and winter closed the autumn scene." 

" Laura Secord was of fair complexion, with kind, brown 
eyes, a sweet and loving smile hovering about the mouth. 
This did not denote weakness. She was five feet four inches 
tall and slight in form."* 

Her granddaughter. Miss L. Louisa Smith, says : 

" I feel a nation's gratitude should have appreciated the 
noble act of Laura Secord, and have raised a monument to her 
memory on the spot selected by her husband as their last 
resting-place." 

* Mrs. Cockbum. 



74 LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 

Mr. and Mrs. Secord are buried in the burying- 
ground at Lundy's Lane. The battle-field was then 
as now the burying-place. The head-stone of Laura 
Secord is three feet high and eighteen inches wide, 
and has the following inscription : 

Here Rests 

LAURA, 

Beloved Wife of James Secord, 

Died October 17TH, 1868. 

In Memory of 

JAMES SECORD, SEN., 

Collector of Customs, 

Who departed this life on the 22nd of February, 1841, 

In the 68th year of his age. 

Universally and deservedly lamented as a sincere Friend, a 
kind and indulgent Parent, and an affectionate Husband. 

A simple wooden paling surrounds the graves.* 

* Given by Mrs. Dunn. 



% 










i'resent state of laura incersoll 
secord's grave, 1900. 



LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD: 75 

APPENDIX IX. 

The Children of James Secord and Laura 
Ingersoll. 

Name. Married. Died. 

Mary, Wm. Trumbull, Asst. Sur- 

geon of 37th Regiment, 
April i8th, 1816. In Ireland. 

Charlotte, Unmarried. 

Harriet, David William Smith, bar- 

rister, at Queenston, by 
license, Nov. 23rd, 1824. 

Hannah Cartwright, Hawley Williams, first ; 

Edward Carthew, second. 

Laura, Dr. William Clark, first; 

Capt. Poore, second. 

Charles Badeau, Miss Robins. In 1872, aged 

63 years. 
Appollonia, Unmarried. At Queens- 

ton, aged 18. 

There are thirteen grandchildren living in the present year, 
1900. 

James B. Secord, jun., married Miss Flint ; died in 1899, at 
Niagara ; no children. 

Lent by Chas. J. Taylor, Esq. 




76 LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 

APPENDIX X. 

Thomas IngersoUi Certain real estate. Deed dated Jan. 
to With, 1793. Acknowledged the same day- 

Samuel Whiting J before 

Thomas Ives, 

Justice of the Peace. 
" In the presence of 
Laura Ingersoll, 
Thomas Ives." 

Book -^tl-, pages 106, 107. 

Thomas Ingersoll ^ Certain mountain lands. His X part 
to > which he owned jointly with Thomas Ives 

John Whiting ) and John Burghart. 

Deed dated April 20th, 1795. Acknowledged April 21st, 
1795, before 

Moses Hopkins, 

Justice of the Peace. 
" In presence of 
Jared Ingersoll, 
Heber Chase." 

April 28, 1795, Mrs. Ingersoll makes a release (on same 
deed) of all her rights in the property, conveyed as wife of 
Thomas Ingersoll, "my present husband," and signs her 
name 

Sally Ingersoll. [Seal.] 
In presence of 

Heber Chase, 

Laura Ingersoll. 



LETTER OF MAJOR THOMAS INGERSOLL. 














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LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 79 

DIAGRAM OF BATTLE OF BEAVER DAMS. 

June 24th, 1813. 

It is well to remember that three Indian trails con- 
verging on Niagara were still used. A part of the 
road over which Boerstler passed has been closed, 
and other roads opened in its place. The old and 
new canals, with a network of railways from all direc- 
tions, have changed the face of the country, and 
caused the disappearance of most of the old land- 
marks. Of the beech woods, then so extensive, but 
little remains, and the beaver dams will soon be 
among the things of the past. In the " History of 
Thorold " there are views of the place taken in 1 897. 
The reader will notice in the accompanying diagram 
the position of several buildings. From the barn 
on the Metier lot Mrs. Philip Metier watched the 
engagement from its beginning until the close. Mrs. 
Metier also said Boerstler passed a little after nine 
o'clock. The Hoover House, being so close to the 
battle-ground, was forsaken by its inmates for a safer 
place. The Kellys were in David Miller's apple 
orchard. The diagram is kindly given by Mr. A. W. 
Reavely, an old resident who has studied the locality, 
and is familiar with its history and traditions. 



80 LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 

STATEMENTS OF MRS. SECORD AND CAPTAIN 
FITZGIBBON. 

Mrs. Secord's own statement : 

" I shall commence at the battle of Queenston, where I was 
at the time the cannon-balls were flying around me in every 
direction. I left the place during the engagement. After the 
battle I returned to Queenston, and then found that my husband 
had been wounded, my house plundered and property destroyed. 
It was while the Americans had possession of the frontier that 
I learned the plans of the American commander, and deter- 
mined to put the British troops under FitzGibbon in possession 
of them, and, if possible, save the British troops from capture and 
total destruction. In doing so I found I should have great diffi- 
culty in getting through the American guards, which were out 
two miles in the country. Determined to persevere, however, I 
left early in the morning, walked nineteen miles in the month of 
June to a field belonging to Mr. De Camp, in the neighborhood 
of the Beaver Dam. By this time daylight had left me. Here 
I found all the Indians encamped. By moonlight the scene 
was terrifying, and to those accustomed to such scenes might 
be considered grand. Upon advancing to the Indians they 
all ran and said, with some yells, ' Woman ! ' which made me 
tremble. I cannot express the awful feeling it gave me, but I 
did not lose my presence of mind. I was determined to perse- 
vere. I went up to one of the chiefs, made him understand I 
had great news for FitzGibbon, and that he must let me pass to 
his camp, or that he and his party would all be taken. The 
chief at first objected to let me pass, but finally consented, with 
some hesitation, to go with me and accompany me to Fitz- 
GibbtMi's station, which was at Beaver Dam, where I had an 
interview with him. I then told him what I had come for and 
what I had heard — that the Americans intended to make an 
attack upon the troops under his command, and would, from 
their superior numbers, capture them all. Benefiting by this 



LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD. 81 

information, Capt. FitzGibbon formed his plans accordingly, 
and captured about five hundred American infantry and fifty 
mounted dragoons, and a field-piece or two was taken from the 
enemy. I returned home the next day exhausted and fatigued. 
I am now advanced in years, and when I look back I wonder 
how I could have gone through so much fatigue with the forti- 
tude to accomplish it." — Taken from the Anglo-American 
Magasifie, Vol. III., November, 1853, No. 5. 

The following is copied from " A Veteran of 18 12," 
by Mary Agnes FitzGibbon, granddaughter of Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel James FitzGibbon :* 

" I do hereby certify that Mrs. Secord, wife of James Secord, 
of Chippewa, Esq., did, in the month of June, 1813, walk from 
her house near the village of St. David's, to De Cou's house in 
Thorold, by a circuitous route of about twenty miles, partly 
through the woods, to acquaint me that the enemy intended to 
attempt, by surprise, to capture a detachment of the 49th Regi- 
ment, then under my command, she having obtained such 
knowledge from good authority, as the event proved. Mrs. 
Secord was a person of slight and delicate frame, and made the 
effort in weather excessively warm, and I dreaded at the time 
she must suffer in health in consequence of fatigue and anxiety, 
she having been exposed to danger from the enemy, through 
whose lines of communication she had to pass. The attempt was 
made on my detachment by the enemy . and his detachment, 
consisting of upwards of 500 men and a field- piece and fifty 
dragoons, were captured in consequence. I write this certifi- 
cate in a moment of much hurry and from memory, and it is 
therefore thus brief. 

"(Sgd.) James FitzGibbon, 

" Formerly Lieutenant 4gth Regiment.''^ 
Mrs. Secord possessed the original, December, 1863. 

* Lieutenant-Colonel FitzGibbon, bom November nth, 1780, died 
at Windsor, December loth, 1863, aged 83. 
6 



CHAPTER V. 
REMINISCENCES OF 1812. 

Many of the incidents in these reminiscences are 
given as nearly as possible as they came from the 
lips of the narrators. They are not history, but the 
experiences of those who made new homes for them- 
selves and their posterity, and exemplified the perils 
which beset them during the troubled days of war. 
Posterity is reaping now what a noble ancestry 
planted, and should give more than silent remem- 
brance to the fathers and mothers of this Dominion. 

It was my privilege in early youth to have heard 
much relating to the War of 1812. It was the cus- 
tom of those days for the women to take their sewing 
or knitting and spend the afternoon with their friends. 
The number was not large, and they were mostly of 
the same age. As old soldiers, when they meet, talk 
over their battles, with the triumphs and defeats of 
the past, so these women told again their share in the 
perils and trials of those eventful years. A quarter 
of a century had not passed, and they were still 
vivid in their memories. Stoves were few ; only the 
open fire with shining brass andirons and fender, 

82 



REMINISCENCES OF 1812. 83 

with bright candlesticks on the mantel-piece, which 
was generally so high that it was safe from the 
depredations of the children. There were no pic- 
tures, and very few books. Occasionally could be 
seen those silhouettes which we are gathering up 
now as precious relics of the past. The brass 
knocker and the brass door-handle were in evidence, 
but there was no lock and key, only a stick hanging 
by a string to place over the latch, and this often for- 
gotten. Visitors arrived between two and three p.m. 
Every married woman, young or old, wore a cap. 
It would have been undignified not to do so. In 
the making and trimming of these caps much taste 
was displayed. The lace, gathered or plaited at the 
sides, was usually real English lace, now called 
Mechlin. There was a plain space over the forehead 
where a large bow of ribbon, of color most becoming 
to the wearer, was placed, and strings of the same. 
A large collar trimmed with lace, or else of embroid- 
ery, completed the dress of the younger matrons, or 
those not in mourning. Widow's caps were of 
muslin, with a full puffed frill. This had a black 
ribbon passing back of the frill and tying under the 
chin. A widow's dress was black bombazine, open 
to the belt, with white muslin kerchief carefully 
folded. This she was supposed to wear until death 
or re-marriage. Middle-aged ladies wore dresses of , 
pressed flannel, generally brown. Of what we call 
gossip there was but little. The conversation soon 
drifted to the war. As one after another told her 



84 REMINISCENCES OF 1812. 

tale of suffering, there arose a hatred of war in my 
heart, which has grown stronger with advancing years. 
Our aged male friends often related their own ex- 
periences and those of their friends. The description 
of Colonel Butler and his Rangers was a combination 
of bravery and cruelty, which was the fascination and 
terror of my childhood. Years after, when from the 
lips of those who knew the man, who had been his 
comrades in war and his neighbors in the better days 
of peace, we heard the story of his later years, it was 
to find a different character — a brave soldier, a loyal 
and useful citizen. 

An amusing incident was related by an aged 
friend. When a very young child, Colonel Butler 
visited at her father's house. Her father had held 
a commission in the Rangers also. Butler was 
accompanied by a colored servant who dressed his 
wig. It was the fashion of the age to have what was 
called " body servants," and they were generally 
colored. Colonel Butler wore one wig and carried a 
second. This was dressed on a blocked head with a 
painted face. The child entered his room one day 
when this was standing on the dressing-table, and 
ran frightened and screaming from the place, telling 
them "someone had cut off Colonel Butler's head." 
It took considerable time and reasoning to convince 
her that this was not true. 

Marriage customs sixty years ago had peculiar 
features. The invitations were written, and had a bow 
of white ribbon at the left-hand corner. The cere- 



REMINISCENCES OF 1812. 85 

mony was generally in the evening. The bride was 
attired in white, and was always supposed to wear 
some simple thing that was borrowed, to bring good 
luck. At the supper the first piece from the wedding- 
cake was cut by her. After supper she changed her 
dress for a silk one. The next day the bride and 
bridegroom, bridesmaids and groomsmen, with many 
of their friends, drove to Niagara Falls. The bride 
wore a long white gauze veil, and afterwards wore this 
for a few Sundays to church. The evening following 
the marriage, or soon after, the bridegroom's parents 
gave what was called an " infair " at their home to 
the bridal guests. An elaborate supper was pro- 
vided, with cards for the elderly people and dancing 
for the younger, in which the fathers and mothers 
joined. 

The deaths and funerals of that time were also 
notable family events, with many usages now passed 
away. The custom of " sitting up " with the dead 
has only been discontinued a {qw years. The dead 
were kept many days before burial, and elaborate 
preparations were made for the funeral. The family, 
from the oldest to the youngest, were put in gar- 
ments of the deepest woe, the whole neighborhood 
working to prepare the mourning. A table, with 
refreshments to eat and drink, was laid out the day 
of the funeral. These refreshments were according 
to the social rank and financial standing of the 
deceased. There were long crape bands and black 
scarfs of various kinds, and gloves for the pall- 



86 REMINISCENCES OF 1812. 

bearers, the physicians, clergymen, etc. The funeral 
garments went through various stages of grief, taking 
from two to three years before they could be left off. 
The diary of Colonel Clark says that the family sleigh 
was painted black at his mother's death. 

Attendance upon the sick devolved upon women, 
for there were no trained nurses. Any woman who, 
by careful observation, had learned some of the 
requirements of sickness, was a valued member of 
the community. There were few women who did 
not feel it a sacred duty, at all times and all places, 
to minister to their sick neighbor, undeterred by 
darkness, by distance or the danger of contagion. 
Whoever was " handy " in sickness was a frequent 
topic of conversation. Vaccination had not yet 
taken the place of inoculation, and whole families 
were inoculated at the same time, followed with the 
best preventive results. 

The late Colonel Clark, of Port Dalhousie, left a 
diary which contains much useful information regard- 
ing the times in which his father lived. 

The volunteers went back to their ruined homes, 
their wasted fields, to struggle with poverty of which 
we can form no idea or estimate. The church and 
the school-house, the minister and the school-master, 
had disappeared. The children of that generation 
grew up in most deplorable ignorance. As soon as 
the struggle for food, clothing and shelter was over, 
these were the first things that secured attention. 
There were villages in which there was not a clergy- 



REMINISCENCES OF 1812. 87 

man to be found of any denomination. In sickness 
those who made any appearance of piety, whether 
male or female, were called upon to give what spir- 
itual consolation could be given the dying in the last 
hour. The writer remembers a lady who came to 
St. David's, and whose infant was evidently dying. 
The mother was very anxious that her child should 
be baptized. An aged woman, who was a Methodist, 
performed the rite, to the comfort and satisfaction of 
the about-to-be-bereaved mother. 

It has been asked why did not England give more 
aid to those who had so bravely upheld the flag of 
their common country? There is one answer that 
should be sufficient. She was gathering her resources 
for that mighty struggle which culminated in Water- 
loo and gave peace to the nations for many years. 
The settlements, commenced so auspiciously, had 
been put back by the invasion for another half 
century. Between two English-speaking peoples there 
were left the wounds which take so many years to 
heal, and the evil influences which war ever brinsrs. 
Amid it all, Canadians felt that they had preserved 
their country and the prestige of that great Empire 
which had ever been their protector, that England's 
flag still waved on the ramparts of Quebec and on 
Queenston Heights, and that " these sons of a 
mighty mother " would ever be a part of that race 
whose drum-beat is heard around the world. 

The only resource of Canada was her fertile lands, 
and these were as unknown to the world as to herself 



88 REMINISCENCES OF 1812. 

The tide of emigration from Europe was turned to 
the homes offered by the United States. It was that 
happy period when they sang — 

" Come along, come along, make no delay ; 
Come from every nation, come from every way ; 
Lands, they are broad enough ; don't be alarmed, 
Uncle Sam is rich enough to give you all a farm." 

And they did come, until there was no more to 
give. Canada, unknown, beHttled, misrepresented, is 
only now beginning to realize the greatness of her 
domain, the worth of her possessions, the magnitude 
of her wheat fields, the timber ' and the fisheries of 
the Pacific coast, the gold of British Columbia and 
the Klondike, the iron, copper and nickel of other 
provinces ; while the coal from her mines is coming 
into the market to replenish the decreasing resources 
of other countries, and to help the industries and 
commerce of the world. 





SOURCE OF FOUR MILE CREEK, ABOVE 
ST. DAVID'S, 1894. 



CHAPTER VI. 

ST. DAVID'S AND VICINITY. 

St. David's received its name in honor of Major 
David Secord. It has had more than one name, the 
first being Four Mile Creek Mills. The spring origi- 
nates in the township of Stamford, near the Grand 
Trunk Railway. It was afterwards called Davidsville 
and Davidstown, and finally merged into St. David's, 
by which name it was known during the war, and 
which it still retains. 

In 1793, Governor Simcoe established salt works 
at Louth. People were allowed to make their own 
salt. The Rev. Mr. Addison had certain rights in 
the works given him. 

Mineral springs are of frequent occurrence, both 
above and below the mountain ridge. There was one 
on the farm of the late Joseph Thorn, and another on 
or near that of the late Mr. John McKinley. 

The mineral springs at St. Catharines have long 
been celebrated for their curative properties, especially 
in all forms of rheumatism. If better known, they 
would bring numberless sufferers to be cured. 

Two hundred and fifty years ago the missionary 

89 



90 ST. DAVID'S AND VICINITY. 

Daillon pronounced the peninsula of Ontario incom- 
parably beautiful, the most extensive and fruitful land 
he ever saw. Others followed, expressing the same 
admiration. Time has proved the truth. This land 
reaches from the shores of Lake Erie to Burlington 
Bay. The bloom and beauty of the orchards in the 
early spring, and the odor of the vineyards, are the 
promise of what the autumn days will bring. Fruits 
of unrivalled excellence are carried by the iron horse 
to the remotest hamlets of the Dominion, and the 
greyhounds of the Atlantic carry them from the 
" garden of Canada " to the tables of Europe. 

Major David Secord gave the land where stands 
the present Methodist church, and along with it the 
burying-ground. Oueenston never had a public 
burial-place, and most of her dead are buried here. 
The site of a school-house was also included in the 
gift, and here the church and school-house stood, side 
by side, until 1871, when one more in unison with 
modern requirements was erected nearer the village. 
Its removal gave enlargement to the burial-ground, 
which was much needed. A small creek is the bound- 
ary on the eastern side. The church was commenced 
before the division of the Methodist Church into the 
two branches of Wesleyan and Episcopal Methodist 
Churches. The building was of substantial materials, 
and was well on its way to completion when the 
division took place. It was left in this unfinished 
state for many years. The late Bishop Richardson is 



ST. DAVID'S AND VICINITY. 91 

authority for the statement that the old Warner meet- 
ing-house was the only one the Episcopal Methodists 
called their own. This church is on the Thorold 
Road, and, with its burying-ground, can be seen from 
the Grand Trunk Railway. This building has been 
renovated and made much smaller. 

During the winter of 1842 and 1843 the Niagara 
Temperance Association sent a lecturer through the 
Niagara District. After the division the Methodists 
of both denominations held alternate religious services 
in the school-house. The school trustees refused to 
allow the school-house for temperance lectures. A 
few of the residents, at their own expense, partitioned 
off part of the old church, put in a table, stove and 
benches, and commenced meetings. Very soon relig- 
ious meetings were held there, as it was much larger 
than the school-room. This lasted for a year or two, 
when all united to put the whole church in repair. 
It has had other renovations to make it more modern. 
The first pulpit was a lofty one, ascended by many 
steps. It has been cut down twice, if not oftener. 

In the burying-ground rest many of the Secords, 
Clements and Woodruffs. Judge De Veaux, the 
founder of De Veaux College at Niagara Falls, N.Y., 
and his wife are buried here. Mrs. De Veaux was 
the sister of Richard and William Woodruff. There 
were three brothers in the Clement family — Joseph, 
" John, the Ranger," and James. Their lands were 
all in this neighborhood. When Mrs. Joseph 



92 ST. DAVID'S AND VICINITY. 

Clement died,* in 1842, considerable of the estate of 
Joseph Clement was purchased by his nephew, Major 
Joseph Clement. At his death he directed that a 
monument should be erected on the north side of the 
road. This monument commemorates the name of 
himself and his wife. In the same field with the 
monument, and where the Presbyterian church 
stands, was the headquarters of General De Rotten- 
berg's forces during the War of 1812. 

At the north-east end of the village, where Mr. 
Neil Black now resides, was the home of Mrs. Stephen 
Secord and the first Secord mill, Mrs. Secord's hus- 
band died previous to the War of 181 2. All her sons 
served in various capacities during the war. Mrs. 
Secord often ran the mill with no assistance, and fur- 
nished the flour to the British forces — we are glad to 
say, at remunerative prices. When St. David's was 
burned, she, with another woman, succeeded in saving 
one of her buildings from the flames, and with her own 
hands helped to rebuild another. After the war the 
mill was rebuilt, but the Secords building a larger 
one nearer the Oueenston Road, caused this one to 
be disused, and its picturesque ruins are among the 
recollections of the past. 

At the south-western side of St. David's there was 
for many years a settlement of colored people, mostly 
escaped slaves. They lived by cultivating vegetables 

* Mrs. Clement gave to each of her daughters — Mrs. Lowell, Mrs. 
Dunton, Mrs. Richard Woodruff, and Mrs. William Woodniff — build- 
ing sites on the main road. 



92 ST. DAVID'S AND VICINITY. 

Clement died,* in 1842, considerable of the estate of 
Joseph Clement was purchased by his nephew, Major 
Joseph Clement At his death he directed that a 
monument should be erected on the north side of the 
road. This monument commemorates the name of 
himself and his wife. In the same field with the 
monument, and where the Presbyterian church 
stands, was the headquarters of General De Rotten- 
berg's forces during the War of 1 812. 

At the north-east end of the village, where Mr. 
Neil Black now resides, was the home of Mrs. Stephen 
Secord and the first Secord mill. Mrs. Secord's hus- 
band died previous to the War of 181 2. All her sons 
served in various capacities during the war. Mrs. 
Secord often ran the mill with no assistance, and fur- 
nished the flour to the British forces — we are glad to 
say, at remunerative prices. When St. David's was 
burned, she, with another woman, succeeded in saving 
one of her buildings from the flames, and with her own 
hands helped to rebuild another. After the war the 
mill was rebuilt, but the Secords building a larger 
one nearer the Oueenston Road, caused this one to 
be disused, and its picturesque ruins are among the 
recollections of the past 

At the south-western side of St David's there was 
for many years a settlement of colored people, mostly 
escaped slaves. They lived by cultivating vegetables 



* Mrs. Clement gave to each of her daughters — Mrs. Lowell, Mrs. 
Dunton, Mrs. Richard Woodruff, and Mrs. William Woodruff — build- 
ing sites on the main road. 




FOUR MILE CREEK, BEEUW ST. DAXTlVs, 1894. 



ST. DAVID'S AND VICINITY. 93 

and fruit, by picking berries — of which there was a 
profusion in those days — and by gathering nuts. 
They were ever ready to do all kinds of jobbing and 
domestic work. They also made splint brooms and 
husk mats, for which a ready sale was found. They 
were not permitted to attend the school. A white 
teacher came from Pennsylvania and taught for a 
short time among them. To their credit, be it said, 
they did not disturb the melon patch or carry off the 
poultry. They had a small church, and their exer- 
cises during revivals and at their baptisms drew large 
audiences. When the attempt to carry Mosely from 
Niagara to the United States was made, in 1837, the 
excitement among them was intense. A recollection 
of that time can never be forgotten. A wagon-load of 
colored men, driving at furious speed, passed through 
the village. None but the driver had a seat, and the 
men stood with hands and arms holding one another 
up. Mosely was rescued, and escaped. One of the 
men, whose name was Maclntyre, returned with a 
bayonet wound through the cheek. There was a 
larger settlement at Niagara Falls. 

In the days of the early settlement it was not an 
uncommon thing, in a dry time, for the women to 
make up a party and go to the Niagara River to 
wash their clothes. Even at the present time, with 
plenty of streams, many have to bring water from a 
distance, and the domestic animals suffer much in 
consequence. The years 1787 and 1788 were notable 



94 ST. DAVID'S AND VICINITY. 

for the visitation of drought and famine, never to be 
forgotten. 

When the days of peace came, after the Revolu- 
tionary War was over, the refugees and the settlers 
brought cuttings of fruit and small trees, as opportu- 
nity offered, from their old homes, more especially from 
the Mohawk Valley and Pennsylvania. These were 
a reproduction of French and German fruits. Thus 
Cobas Middaugh brought a summer sugar pear which 
ripened in August, that was most delicious to the 
taste. The apples have not been surpassed in excel- 
lence by our modern productions. Pippins and russets 
were of several varieties. Swayzie Pomme Gris is a 
native variety of russet. Plums — the blue, the dam- 
son, green gage and egg — were abundant. Peaches 
had not attained the perfection of the present time, 
but were so plentiful that they were gathered in 
heaps, and carried in wagons to the distillery. The 
wild grape grew where it could find a place to climb 
upon. Dried fruits — such as peaches, plums, cherries 
and berries — were in every house for winter use. The 
" paw-paw," now so seldom found, was common then. 

The old-fashioned flowers were everywhere. Roses 
grew in abundance, especially the damask and Lan- 
caster, and a dark double crimson rose. Single and 
double white roses were common, and a striped rose 
now seldom seen. A small Burgundy rose, called the 
button rose, was used as a border. White lilies, crim- 
son peonies, tulips of every hue, and fragrant pinks 
were cultivated along with annuals, by the careful 



ST. DAVID'S AND VICINITY. 95 

hands of our ancestors. Each begged and shared 
with her friends anything new. The conservatory 
and nursery were then unheard of 

Part of the semi-annual visitations were from 
Indians. One aged squaw, named Mary, came from 
the Tuscarora Reservation, beyond Lewiston, N.Y. 
It was her custom to enter without knocking and 
silently take a seat by the fire. Whatever was given 
her to eat she took without thanks, never sitting at 
the table. She made no attempt at conversation, nor 
could she be drawn out to say more than yes or no, 
and this was generally given with a nod or shake of 
the head, and an occasional " Ugh." She was always 
well dressed. Her moccasins were decorated with 
colored porcupine quills ; a skirt of dark-blue broad- 
cloth reached nearly to the ankles ; below were leg- 
gings of the same, embroidered with beads. A calico 
jacket was fastened from the throat to the bottom with 
silver buckles about an inch in diameter, as closely 
as they could be placed. A blanket was worn on 
the head, and a large basket containing articles for 
sale, with a strap to go over the head, held the 
blanket in place. The baskets were of all sorts and 
sizes, made of splint, and of various colors, also bead- 
work. We were always glad to see her, and she knew 
she was welcome. She was old when we first knew 
her, and always walked with a staff. When she came 
no more, we felt that one of the old landmarks had 
passed away. The male Indians brought large 
baskets, also hickory whip-stocks, axe-helves, and 



96 ST. DAVIDS AND VICINITY. 

husk door-mats, and occasionally furs ; but the fur 
trade was vanishing before the advance of civilization 
and the increasing number of settlers. The Indian 
man dressed like the white man, his only peculiarity 
at that time being that he used a blanket instead of 
an overcoat and a beaver hat. Such were the 
Indians of sixty years ago. Now both sexes dress 
more and more like the white people. 
• The Methodist ministers, who suffered everything 
in the way of hardship and privation, are first among 
those whom this age should honor for the noble work 
they did in evangelizing and educating the people in 
the remotest settlements. No place was too difficult 
of access for their visitation. It was necessary, too, 
for their comfort and respectability, that, as much as 
possible, the wife should accompany her husband in 
his ministrations. A minister's wife told the writer 
that often on their journey ings their washing was 
done at one place, the wet bundle dried at another 
stopping-place, and ironed at the third. This was 
done with her own hands, she taking the soap, the 
blueing and the starch with her, for often some one 
or other of these necessaries could not be had. She 
also said that her needful sewing and mending were 
done under the same circumstances. They suffered 
from cold, insufficient clothing and unwholesome 
food, and their scanty salary was seldom paid in full. 
A clergyman, eminent in his church, said that 
his studies were made while travelling his circuit, his 
wife driving while he studied ; and when she could 



ST. DAVID'S AND VICINITY. 97 

not go, his children took their turn in driving with 
him. They were not discouraged, for three of his 
sons became clergymen. 

Their frequent change of residence was especially 
arduous to the wife and family. Many were moved 
every year, generally at two years, and to live three 
years in a place was a remarkably happy event. 
With the years and prosperity came the furnished 
parsonages, which have lessened the inconvenience of 
removals. 

It has been frequently said that the ministers were 
unlearned men. That, no doubt, was true, but, 
unlearned as they were, they were ever striving to 
improve themselves, and impressing upon all with 
whom they came in contact the advantages of educa- 
tion. The first libraries in the rural districts were 
the Sunday-school libraries, and the Sunday-school 
teachers had often to teach the alphabet to the 
children. Testaments and hymn-books given as re- 
wards in Sunday-school were, in many cases, the 
first copies of the Scriptures in their homes. Their 
parents, perhaps, could not read, and had no means 
to send their children to the common school. 





<«>^-'<^ 6-At^ ,:^^^ 



CHAPTER VII. 

FORT NIAGARA. 

"The Indians were ever sensible of the importance of this 
point. Repeated attempts had been made by the French to 
get possession. At last, by strategy, they succeeded. A 
French officer, who had been a prisoner among the Iroquois, 
became naturalized among them, thereby gaining his freedom. 
He communicated to the Governor a plan for the French to 
establish themselves at Niagara. He returned to the Iroquois, 
pretending love for a nation that was now his own, and asking 
to bring his family among them. To do this he must have a 
house where they could live in a suitable manner, and offering 
to trade with them from this place. The house was built. As 
trade grew rapidly, the house extended until it soon became a 
fortress, which alike awed the Indians and the English." 

This extract is from a work published in 1760, 
called a " Military Dictionary," compiled by a mili- 
tary gentleman, and dedicated by the author, " To the 
Right Honourable Edward Boscowen, Admiral of the 
Blue Squadron," etc. 

Another account, given by F. H. Severance in his 
" Old Trails on the Niagara River," is corroborative 
of the attempted settlements. It is the narration of 
the Chevalier De Trigay for the year 1687, soldier to 

98 




FORT NIAGARA IN 1 888. 



FORT NIAGARA. 99 

the Sieur De Brissay, Marquis Denonville, Governor 
and Lieutenant-General in New France. 

" I was with the troops numbering some hundreds that the 
Marquis Denonville took through the wilderness into the 
cantons of the Iroquois, and afterwards employed to build a 
stockade and cabins at the mouth of the straits of Niagara on 
the east side, in the way where they go beaver hunting. ' Fort 
Denonville,' the Sieur De Brissay decreed it should be called. 
He let none rest day or night until he had made a fortification 
in part of earth surmounted by palisades. On the plain about 
the fort were no trees, but some of us went into the forest on 
both the east and west side of the river and cut the trees. It 
was hard work getting them up the high bank, laboring in fear 
of an attack. But in three days we built a pretty good fort 
with four bastions, where we put two great guns. 

"We began to build some cabins on the four sides of the 
square in the middle of it. Duluth and De Tontaye, as the 
work progressed, left for Detroit, Mackinaw and Duluth. Then 
the Marquis himself went back to Montreal, leaving loo men, 
with officers, to hold the new fort. He left on the 3rd of 
August. The men worked hard, and got up the cabins for the 
soldiers and a place for the commandant, built a bakehouse 
and oven and a storehouse, digged a well. Vaudreuil soon 
followed Denonville. The men were left with insufficient 
implements and ammunition. The stores proved bad, and the 
dreadful winter was accompanied by starvation, disease and 
death. The brave De Troyes, lying on his dying bed, felt 
his hand grasped by a friendly Miami, who brought relief The 
men who had gone out to get wood had been devoured by 
wolves, for their powder was exhausted. Among the rescued 
was Father Milet. A spot was marked in the square, and they 
knelt for mass. An oak was felled, and while the carpenters 
prepared the cross. Father Milet traced with his own hand the 
legend, "Regnat, Vincit, Imperat Christus." The cross was 



100 FORT NIAGARA. 

raised on the spot where De Troyes and his fourscore comrades 
were buried. 

"The friendly Miamis helped, but the Iroquois constantly 
tormented them. Finally the order came to leave. The pali- 
sades were torn down, the guns put on board a vessel, and the 
cabins alone were left standing. On the 15th of September, 
1688, they had their last mass. The cross was left standing, 
but the standards went with the builders of Fort Niagara to 
Montreal. Previous to this there had been an attempt by 
La Salle and La Motte De Lassure. They called it Fort Conty, 
but these had failed. In 1721, Charlevois, in his canoe, came 
up the Niagara. Four years passed, when the French again 
attempted.with success, to erect a fort. De Longueuil superin- 
tended, and a Royal Engineer named De Levy directed the 
construction. The stone came from Lewiston, the cut stone 
from Frontenac, the wood from the west side of the river. The 
oldest part is 175 years old. It has been enlarged and altered 
many times." 

During the Revolutionary War Fort Niagara was 
the refuge of the Loyalists from all directions. The 
Indians, driven from their homes, flocked here in great 
numbers. All these had to be fed and clothed, the 
Loyalists to be housed, and the Indians given ammu- 
nition to help provide for themselves. 



1779- 
February 12th. 
September 21st. 
October. 



1 , 364 drew rations, besides 64 families. 
Food for 5,036. 

Though many had been sent away, 
there were still 3,768 to maintain. 



Bolton, who commanded for three years at Fort 
Niagara, wished the Indians whose villages had been 
destroyed by Sullivan to go to Montreal, and those 



FORT NIAGARA. 101 

who lived near home to return and take care of the 
corn, for it was impossible to feed all the Indians. 

Sullivan in his raid had destroyed all but two of 
the Indian villages, and to Fort Niagara the despair- 
ins; and broken-hearted remnants of the doomed 
people gathered as their last refuge. Even with the 
help given, many died from cold and starvation. 

Governor Simcoe at one time thought of making 
London the capital of Upper Canada, but when 
Michigan was ceded by treaty to the Americans he 
selected Toronto. Newark, with Fort Niagara in 
American hands, could be no longer thought of as 
the capital. 

No other place has a more varied history. Gained 
by strategy, held by force since English arms took it 
from France in 1759, it has never been taken by 
arms from their grasp. Ceded to the United States 
by treaty, it was handed over to them in 1796. It 
was re-taken in 18 13, and held until peace restored it 
in 181 5. Such is the history of Fort Niagara. 

One of the incidents occurring in 181 2 is given in 
a pamphlet written by a lady who lived in Lewiston. 
Her father was surgeon at Fort Niagara, and often 
attended service at St. Mark's Church. She and her 
sister, both little girls, usually accompanied him. A 
short time previous to the invasion they were at the 
church. General Brock walked to the ferry with 
them. He bade the little girls a kindly farewell, 
and, shaking hands with their father, said, " I suppose 
we shall soon have to be enemies." This lady also 



102 



FORT NIAGARA. 



says there was a large orchard in front of the Fort 
at that time. Wind and waves have swept it away. 

Another tradition, characteristic of the period, is 
told by Mr. Kirby. Between the officers of Fort 
George and Fort Niagara there had been many 
pleasant social interchanges. Some American offi- 
cers were dining with their British friends the even- 
ing that the news came that war had been declared. 
The news was kept back. When the repast was 
over, the British officers went with their guests to 
the ferry. Then the news was told, and, shaking 
hands, they parted to meet as friends no more. 




CHAPTER VIII. 

ISABELLA MARSHALL GRAHAM. 

[This article was compiled from the " Life of Mrs. Isabella 
Graham," written for the Woman's Literary Club, its object 
being to stimulate and encourage "higher education among 
women," to show its value in all the conditions of life to those 
who are fortunate enough to acquire it, and that no sacrifice is 
too great to obtain it. Her life shows what it did for her a cen- 
tury and a half ago, and the enduring influence which it gave.] 

Isabella Marshall (afterwards Mrs. Graham) 
was born July 29th, 1742, in Lanarkshire, Scotland. 
Though her father was one of the elders of the 
Established Church, who left with Ralph and Eben- 
ezer Erskine, she was educated in the principles of 
the Church of Scotland. She had watched with 
assiduous care her dying grandfather, and in his will 
he left her a legacy of some hundreds of pounds. 
Though only ten years old, she asked that the money 
should be used to give her a thorough education. 
Her wish was granted, and for seven successive 
winters she attended the school of a Mrs. Morehouse. 
Her father rented the farm of Ellerslie, which had 
been the habitation of the patriot William Wallace. 
Here her childhood and youth were passed. At the 

103 



104 ISABELLA MARSHALL GRAHAM. 

age of twenty-three she married Dr. John Graham, of 
Paisley. About a year after their marriage Dr. 
Graham was appointed surgeon to the 6oth or Royal 
American Regiment, and was ordered to Canada, 
where the regiment was stationed. Mrs. Graham 
accompanied him, hoping to make a permanent 
home in America. Dr. Graham wished to sell his 
commission and purchase a farm on the Mohawk 
River, and Mr. Marshall (Mrs. Graham's father), was 
to follow and superintend the farm. The voyage 
occupied nine weeks from Greenock to Quebec. 

Quebec at that time was a gay and fashionable 
place, and during her short stay she formed many 
pleasant acquaintances. They were soon ordered to 
Montreal, and here her eldest daughter Jessie was 
born. An infant son had been left with her mother 
in Scotland, but he died soon after his mother's 
departure. Their stay in Montreal was brief. Dr. 
Graham being ordered to Fort Niagara on Lake 
Ontario, to join the second battalion of his regiment. 
Mrs. Graham followed him as soon as possible. 
Here they lived for over five years, and it was the 
birthplace of Joanna, the second, and Isabella, the 
third daughter. Her servants were two Indian girls 
who, under her careful training, became highly useful. 
Mrs. Graham taught them everything relating to 
housekeeping, to cook, to take care of her children, 
to read and to sew. 

For some time she was the only wife in the fort, 
but the latter part of her stay saw other ladies, and 



ISABELLA MARSHALL GRAHAM. 105 

a pleasant society, whose friendship for her extended 
through life. It was here she met an officer's wife, 
Mrs. Brown, whose mother was Mrs. Vanbrugh Liv- 
ingstone, of New York. She ever spoke of those 
years as the happiest of her life. She had a conge- 
nial husband, and their circumstances were easy. 

Mrs. Graham tells of the Indians, and of a chief of 
the Senecas bringing his sick daughter a long dis- 
tance for her husband's medical treatment. There was 
no chaplain or religious service of any kind in the 
fort, and Mrs. Graham took her Bible to the woods 
surrounding the fort, to read, to meditate and to 
pray. Already the newspapers of the day were full 
regarding preparations for what was to be the Revo- 
lutionary War. As that part of the regiment was 
mostly composed of Americans, it was thought best 
to send them to Antigua in the West Indies. Dr. 
and Mrs. Graham, their three children, and the two 
Indian girls, were sent by boat to Oswego, thence 
through the woods by the trail to the Mohawk River, 
and to Schenectady in bateaux. Here Dr. Graham 
left them and proceeded to New York in hopes to 
sell his commission and settle upon the Mohawk. 
Mrs. Graham followed, and during her stay in New 
York made many friends. Dr. Graham did not sell 
his commission, and they embarked for Antigua, 5th 
November, 1772, with the regiment. An insurrection 
was raging among the Caribs in Antigua, and three 
weeks after their arrival the regiment was sent to the 
field, Dr. Graham accompanying it. In her letters to 



106 ISABELLA MARSHALL GRAHAM. 

him she hopes they will not entail slavery upon their 
prisoners, and bids him, should any fall to his lot, to 
set them at liberty. Thus, ninety years before it was 
abolished by the Civil War had she learned to abhor 
slavery and speak for freedom. Mrs. Graham sent her 
eldest daughter, who was only five years of age, to her 
mother's care in Scotland, to escape bad influences, 
but before she arrived the grandmother died. This 
was a great affliction, but she was destined to a 
greater trial. On the 17th of November, 1773, Dr. 
Graham was stricken down with a violent fever, and 
in a few days she was left a widow in a foreign land. 
Kind friends did all they could in this hour of deso- 
lation. The widow's weeds assumed at that time 
were never laid aside, and the style in which they 
were made, through her long life, was not changed. 
She was then thirty-two years of age. Though her 
means were limited and she was urged to sell her 
Indian girls, she refused to do so. One of the girls 
died before she left Antigua, the other went to Scot- 
land with her and married respectably. To the sur- 
geon of the regiment who succeeded Dr. Graham — a 
young man who had been helped by her husband — 
she presented his library and sword. Dr. Henderson, 
ever after, as his means permitted, sent her remit- 
tances until the year 1795. After the birth of her 
son she made preparations to return to her native 
land. Upon her departure Major Brown gave her a 
letter to the agent in Belfast. No vessel was going 
to Scotland, so she sailed for this port. This letter, 



ISABELLA MARSHALL GRAHAM. 107 

when delivered to the agent, was found to be intended 
for her, whereby the officers, as a mark of respect and 
affection for the memory of her deceased husband, 
had paid the expenses of her voyage. Her widow's 
pension was but ;^i6 a year. 

On reaching her home she found that, in addition 
to the loss of her mother, her father had lost every- 
thing by becoming security for a friend, and was 
living in a very small house. His health failing, she 
assumed the care of her parent. He lived with her 
until his death, nine years after, receiving the assid- 
uous care of herself and children. The only income 
upon which she could rely was ^20 a year. She 
kept a small school in Cartside for a while, when she 
removed to Paisley. These were days of poverty and 
loneliness, for her acquaintances had forgotten her. 
She had a cow, and made and sold butter. The 
children fed on the skim milk ; their breakfast and 
supper was porridge ; dinner, potatoes and salt ; and 
they were dressed in homespun. A rigid determina- 
tion to owe nothing carried her through this painful 
period. Upon the advice of friends, she made a small 
venture to increase her funds. This was unsuccessful 
at first, for the vessel in which she had made her con- 
signment was captured by a French privateer. Her 
friends proposed a boarding house or a boarding 
school. After mature consideration, she chose the 
boarding school, and removed to Edinburgh. A 
natural magnetism made her friends, whose friend- 
ship lasted through life. At this time she received 



108 ISABELLA MARSHALL GRAHAM. 

the insurance upon her lost venture. She ever made 
it a point to return borrowed money with interest to 
those who helped her in her hour of need, and these 
were people who had loved and honored her husband. 
The school, through their efforts, became a great suc- 
cess. People of piety and influence committed their 
children to her care. Her superior education was of 
great service. She felt deeply the teacher's responsi- 
bility. She watched their studies and their spiritual 
welfare, and to these she added the useful accomplish- 
ments which fitted them to fill a distinguished place 
in life, for her pupils were many of them from the 
highest ranks. A code of laws for their governance 
was adopted and carried out. When any offence 
against these laws was committed, pupils held a court, 
the offender was tried by her companions, they fixed 
the penalty, and this sentence was submitted to her 
approval. Thus there was no hasty, arbitrary or 
capricious punishment. In sickness she watched over 
them with unremitting care, and no expense was 
spared to restore them to health. She educated the 
children of clergymen at half price. As her school 
prospered, she grew in greatness with it. She insisted 
that the payments be in advance. She helped by 
lending money and taking work in return, and asking 
no interest. Business on correct principles was con- 
ducted by precept and example. Her school caused 
constant thought and watchfulness. Her daughters 
were trained to be her assistants in every way. No 
false pride prevented her accepting what she could 



ISABELLA MARSHALL GRAHAM. 109 

not do herself. Thus Lady Glenorchy sent Mrs. 
Graham's eldest daughter to Rotterdam, paying her 
expenses and keeping her in pocket money, that she 
might become proficient in the French language. 

This Lady Glenorchy was of an ancient family, 
and had married the Earl of Breadalbane. Together 
they had travelled on the Continent, and their beauty 
and accomplishments made them welcome in nearly 
every court in Europe. He died in early youth, and 
thenceforward Lady Glenorchy, when the light of her 
life went out, devoted herself to good in every form. 
She took the management of her estates, she kept an 
account of her income, and to what object it was 
applied. She built chapels for ministers of various 
denominations ; no good object but had her helping 
hand. Idleness and pride she could not tolerate. 
Her charities were not published ; but to be good, 
and to do good, was her constant aim. She gave 
liberally during her life, for she believed in spending 
her money while she lived. 

After Lady Glenorchy's death Mrs. Graham felt she 
would like to return to America. We must remember 
that a woman of Mrs. Graham's character and attain- 
ments ever made friends, who felt it a privilege to 
promote her views. We have mentioned before Mrs. 
Brown, whose husband was in the 6oth Regiment. 
She, with others, urged her to come to New York. 
There was no first-class school for young women in 
America. Lady Glenorchy had left her ^200, and Dr. 
Henderson's remittance gave her the means to return. 



110 ISABELLA MARSHALL GRAHAM. 

This was done after careful deliberation. She chartered 
a small vessel, as Algerian pirates swarmed the seas. 
Into the details of the voyage we will not enter. She 
landed in New York the 8th of September, 1789. 
She received a glad welcome from her many friends 
who felt every confidence in her ability to teach the 
higher branches of education. She opened her school 
on the 5th of October, 1789, with five scholars, and 
before the month closed she had fifty. A favorable 
change was soon perceptible in the minds, manners 
and accomplishments of the young women committed 
to her care. In the highest social circles of New York 
City at the present time, it is considered an honor 
that their great-grandmothers attended Mrs. Graham's 
school, and there are frequent allusions made by the 
descendants of her pupils. Mrs. Graham ever incul- 
cated religious principles as the only solid foundation 
of morality and virtue. Her conversation and example 
were ever an inspiration. General Washington when 
in New York visited her school, and honored it with 
his patronage. The venerable Bishop Moore, of the 
Episcopal Church, never missed an examination. 
Jessie, her eldest daughter, married Mr. Stephenson, 
a merchant of New York, in 1790. When her beau- 
tiful life ended, Mrs. Graham, as she saw her depart, 
calmly said, " I wish you joy, my darling." The 
second daughter, Joanna, and the third, Isabella, mar- 
ried merchants. Her only son, born a few months 
after Dr. Graham's death, had, under the advice of 
friends, been left in Scotland to complete his studies. 



ISABELLA MARSHALL GRAHAM. \\\ 

His first instructor was faithful, and he was sent to 
Edinburgh. Here he was left, in a measure, to him- 
self, and, dissatisfied with study, prevailed upon his 
friends to get him into the merchant service. He 
was shipwrecked on the coast of Holland, and a friend 
of Mrs. Graham's took him to his house and enabled 
him to come to the United States. He remained 
with his mother for some months. Mrs. Graham 
thought it was his duty to return to his employers to 
finish his term of service. She fitted him out hand- 
somely, and he embarked for Greenock with the son 
of her pastor, Dr. Mason, who was going to Edinburgh 
to attend theological lectures. Three months after, 
she learned a press-gang had boarded the ship. He 
was saved by a stratagem of the passengers, but his 
effects were taken. Early in 1792 Mrs. Graham heard 
that her son had been ill of fever, and after that sub- 
ject to epileptic fits, which unfitted him for the ser- 
vice. Mrs. Graham had him carefully provided for, 
and the gentleman to whom he was apprenticed per- 
mitting him to leave, she wrote urging him to come 
home. He wrote her from Demerara, in 1794, stating 
that he had sailed from Amsterdam in a Dutch ves- 
sel, which was taken by the French and re-taken by 
the English. He had arrived at Demerara in the ship 
Hope, and would return to Europe and to her with a 
fleet which was to sail under convoy. A vessel 
named the Hope was captured by the French. What 
was young Graham's fate was never known, though 
every inquiry by herself and her sons-in-law was 



112 ISABELLA MARSHALL GRAHAM. 

made. Mrs. Graham ever regretted she had not kept 
him with her, and the advice was given to friends " to 
ever keep your children about you." 

Mrs. Graham's school had brought her prosperity 
and influence. She always gave a tenth for religious 
and benevolent purposes. Upon the marriage of her 
daughters she closed the school. A lease of the pro- 
perty she had taken from Trinity Church Corporation 
was sold at an advance of ;;^i,ooo. "Quick, quick," 
she said, " let me appropriate the tenth before my 
heart grows hard." Thenceforward her active mind 
and life were spent in carrying out schemes for good- 
She helped to form the first Missionary Society in 
New York. The Methodists and Moravians in An- 
tigua had been her friends at the time of her husband's 
death, and she sent £^0 to aid their Christian work. 
In 1797 she founded a Society for the Relief of widows 
with small children whose fathers and protectors had 
died with the yellow fever. Her son-in-law, Mr. 
Bethune, a member of the St. Andrew's Society, 
found how inadequate were the society's means. His 
wife and her mother started this society, and Mrs. 
Graham was its first directress. They sent circulars 
to their friends, and they met at Mrs. Graham's house. 
It is not possible to enumerate the societies founded 
by her in those sixteen years which were devoted to 
the good of humanity. Her son-in-law, Mr. Smith, 
had purchased a colored man and set him at liberty. 
" Brother Pero," as he was called by Mrs. Graham, 
ever had her friendship and help. His Christian 



ISABELLA MARSHALL GRAHAM. II3 

principles were recognized by all. She used to read 
to him and watch over him in sickness. 

Every society had the help of her charity and her 
business methods. When pestilence came to the city 
she appealed to her old pupils for their aid and their 
ministrations. Emulating her example, they went 
among the dead and the dying. She had taught them 
to rise above class and creed. We should remember 
that in those days there were no schools such as at 
present instruct our youth. To organize day schools, 
to have her old pupils go among them as instructors, 
to found Sunday-schools and tract societies are but a 
few of the lines of work. The crowning work was the 
first orphan asylum in America. Assisted by Mrs. 
Hoffman, they with only $250 commenced their labors 
in 1806. In fourteen months they secured land and 
a larger building, and even this was only fifty feet 
square. This grew and prospered, and the land on 
which it stood was sold in 1836 for $39,000. With 
this, on the banks of the Hudson, was built the beau- 
tiful Bloomingdale Asylum. Tablets to Mrs. Graham 
and Mrs. Hoffman, its founders, adorn the walls. She 
founded a school to assist young women of limited 
means to a higher education, and her old pupils 
taught them voluntarily. She formed loan societies, 
and helped others to materials, paying for the work, 
when finished. The Hospital and female convicts were 
helped, and the' Magdalen House established. Such 
was the work of this great teacher. The last time 
she met her workers, was to form a society " for the 

promotion of industry among the poor." When the 
8 



114 ISABELLA MARSHALL GRAHAM. 

summons came, she sent for a dear friend, a Mrs. 
Crystie, to be with her. They had mutually promised 
that whoever should be first called would be assisted 
by the other. Surrounded by her children, Isabella 
Graham died 27th July, 18 14. 

The noble work of Isabella Graham has been car- 
ried on by Mary Lyon, Mrs. Emma Willard, and 
many others. We see its fruit in Mount Holyoke, 
Vassar, and Wellesley. 

As a child she saw those scenes so admirably 
depicted by Sir Walter Scott in "Waverley," when 
the heart of Scotland, stirred to its depths, made its 
ineffectual effort for the restoration of the Stuarts. 
She escaped the Revolutionary War to have the 
" Father of the Republic " place his relatives under 
her care to be educated.* Her eyes closed before the 
war commencing in 181 2 had terminated. 

We can believe that the woman who would not 
own a slave, who wrote to her husband in the same 
clear tone, whose sons-in-law followed her example, 
must have done much to create the principles which 
led to the extinction of slavery in America. 

In 1896, at Fort Niagara, when was commemorated 
the one-hundredth anniversary of the withdrawal of 
the British flag, among the memories of that day the 
two who were uppermost in my thoughts were the 
brave discoverer and soldier, La Salle, and the equally 
noble woman, Isabella Graham. 

* At his death she makes this comment : " Great things were said 
of Washington, and they were due. A nation blest him while he lived, 
and with all the form of language lamented his death." 



CHAPTER IX. 
MEMOIR OF JOHN WHITMORE, 

NIAGARA TOWNSHIP, ONT. 

The late John Whitmore, Esq., of Lake Road, 
Niagara Township, Ont, was born 1775, in the Pro- 
vince of New Jersey, North America. His father, 
Mr. Peter Whitmore, was a farmer, a man of honor- 
able character and loyal principles. He had a family 
consisting of wife, three sons and five daughters. 

During the revolutionary troubles in New Jersey, 
Peter Whitmore and two neighboring farmers like 
himself in principle were harassed and persecuted 
by the rebels to such a degree that they resolved to 
leave their homes and move to the frontier settle- 
ments on the west branch of the Susquehanna, in 
the Province of Pennsylvania. The three families 
removed there accordingly sometime in 1776, built 
houses and commenced clearing the land and farm- 
ing the wilderness of the Upper Susquehanna. 
There were many Indians about, but the Whitmore 
family had no fear of them, being Loyalists and on 
friendly term.s with them, as all being on the same 
side in the Civil War then raging in the colonies. 



115 



116 MEMOIR OF JOHN WHITMORE. 

They were, moreover, quiet, industrious people, who 
strove to live in the fear of God and with good-will 
towards whites and Indians. The least thing they 
expected was to be attacked by any of the Indians, 
who were continually coming and going on the war- 
path to fight for the King's cause in the colonies. 

So far as regards the Six Nations and other loyal 
tribes they were quite safe. But the rebel Congress 
had incited a number of the Indian tribes — princi- 
pally Oneidas and Delawares, with deserters and 
vagabonds from other tribes — to take up arms for 
the rebel cause, and these Indians, seeking oppor- 
tunity in the absence of protection to the Loyalist 
settlers, committed outrages and murders during the 
whole course of the war, in which they were aided by 
bands of white marauders, called " Sons of Liberty " 
— a bad set, whose career need not be followed out in 
this memoir. 

Sometime in the early spring of 1779, a band of 
Delawares, with some white ruffians disguised as 
Indians, made their appearance in the woods near 
the house of the Whitmores. They acted as if not 
intending any harm, and the family, having been so 
long accustomed to Indian guests and visitors, felt 
not the slightest fear of them. Indeed, their daughter 
Mary had seen and spoken to them at a spring where 
she had gone to get water, and they spoke to her as 
if not thinking of any injury. She told her people in 
the house, but they suspected nothing. 

Their confidence was rudely broken in the night. 



MEMOIR OF JOHN WHITMORE. 117 

When the family were all in their beds, the savages 
suddenly burst in the unprotected door. The family 
in the house that night consisted of the father, mother, 
one son grown up, a younger son George, and John 
Whitmore, four years old, as well as three daughters 
and a baby not a year old. 

Peter Whitmore and his son jumped up to defend 
the house, but they were both instantly shot ; the 
mother, too, was killed. The children were seized 
and carried away captives by the Indians, who 
instantly took to the woods to avoid pursuit. The 
children were dragged along by the savages, but the 
baby, which was carried by one of them, cried and 
wailed so much that an Indian, in order to stop its 
noise, took it by the heels and dashed its head against 
a tree, fearing probably that its crying would discover 
their track to pursuers. 

The children, when the band encamped, were com- 
pelled to witness the scalps of their father, mother 
and brother stretched on hoops and scraped by the 
Indians for preservation. This shocking sight was 
ever vividly remembered by Mr. Whitmore, although 
but four years old when it occurred. Personally he 
had only a faint recollection of the massacre, but his 
sister Mary, who was fourteen years of age at the 
time, remembered everything distinctly. She resided 
near the Long Sault, Hoople's Creek, near Cornwall, 
Ont., and related these particulars to the writer of 
this, on the occasion of a visit which her brother, 
John Whitmore, accompanied by the writer, made 



118 MEMOIR OF JOHN WHITMORE. 

her in the year 1850, he not having seen her for 
seventy years. 

It was only about 1846 that he discovered where 
his sister was Hving, near the Long Sault. She had 
married a U. E. LoyaHst named Hoople, and her 
descendants are still living at that place. 

The American Indians are not by nature a cruel 
people. It is only in war that they act cruelly to 
their enemies and to their prisoners. Their practices 
in regard to the latter are in accordance with a code 
of traditional usages, and to avenge the deaths of any 
of their own tribal warriors, they torture and kill 
and burn their prisoners, as many as they have lost 
of their own tribe. 

The children of the Whitmore family were adopted 
into different families of the Delawares. John and 
Mary were adopted by an Indian woman who had 
lost her husband in the war. They were, as was 
generally the case in such matters, kindly and even 
affectionately treated in every respect as the Indians 
treated their own children. John was also regularly 
adopted into the tribe. He underwent the ordeal of 
fire, that is, endured the laying on of hot coals upon 
his inner arm, the marks of which he carried all his 
life. His ears were pierced for pendants and his nose 
for a ring, in the Indian fashion. He was declared in 
council to be a brave boy and worthy of being a mem- 
ber of the Delaware nation into which he had been 
adopted. Of course, he and his sister forgot their 



MEMOIR OF JOHN WHITMORE. 119 

own language, and spoke only Delaware when they 
were, after some years, rescued from captivity. 

Their Indian foster-mother was entirely devoted to 
them, and did all in her power to make them happy, 
and I think did so, for the Indian life of John and 
Mary Whitmore was always referred to by them as a 
happy period of their lives. Their foster-mother used 
to vist John Whitmore occasionally, and was treated 
with the utmost respect by him. 

The other children became separated from John 
and Mary Whitmore. One of them, taken by the 
Oneidas, was afterwards taken from them by the 
Senecas, and she married Horatio Jones, chief inter- 
preter of the Senecas on the Genesee River. Some 
of her descendants, the Joneses, living near Attica, 
New York, are still there. One son of Horatio Jones 
by an Indian wife — William Jones — is at the present 
time head chief of the Senecas, on the Cattaraugus 
Reservation, New York. The other sister was never 
heard tell of No trace of her was found after being 
taken captive. George Whitmore, the brother of 
John, was also rescued, and a grandson of his is now 
living in Jersey City, N.J. 

John Whitmore and his sister Mary were rescued 
from the Indians in 1783 by Captain Daniel Servos, 
of Butler's Rangers. Captain Servos took John to 
his home at Niagara, adopted him as his own, and in 
time gave him his daughter Magdalene to wife, and a 
share of his large property the same as his own sons. 
Eliza Magdalene, only surviving daughter of John 



120 MEMOIR OF JOHN WHITMORE. 

and Magdalene Whitmore, was the wife of Wm. 
Kirby, the writer of this memoir. 

John Whitmore was a man of excellent under- 
standing and character, of a kindly, cheerful disposi- 
tion, honorable and just in all the conduct of life. 
One of the worthiest of men, he deserved the sincere 
and general respect in which he was held by all who 
knew him. The character of "Farmer Gay" in the 
Canadian Idyll of "The Harvest Moon," is taken 
from John Whitmore, and describes him well. 

His benevolent heart and Christian principles con- 
quered in one great trial and temptation of his life, 
and is worth recording here as a proof of the possi- 
bility of love conquering the fiercest passion of 
revenge for great and cruel wrongs. 

In 1 813, when the American army, having taken 
the town of Niagara, occupied it for near seven 
months, there was among the Indians who accom- 
panied their army an old Delaware chief named 
De Coignee, who had been one of the party which had 
massacred the Whitmore family in 1779. John Whit- 
more knew him well, and, hearing of his presence in 
the American army, was fired with a great spirit of 
revenge to slay him for the murder of his father, 
mother, brother and baby sister. He came into the 
town, saw the chief and spoke to him, upbraiding 
him for the murders. The chief took his words 
patiently, and excused the act as taking place in war 
time. But John Whitmore would not accept the 
excuse. He could not kill the chief in the midst of 



MEMOIR OF JOHN WHITMORE. 121 

the camp, but resolved to take his life on the first 
opportunity that offered. He learned from some of the 
Indians that De Coignee was to go at a certain hour 
on some business to the house of Captain John D. 
Servos, on the Lake Road, then occupied by an 
outpost of American dragoons and Indians. He 
resolved to waylay him on the road and kill him. 
He accordingly took a musket and bayonet, and went 
and posted himself in the woods by the roadside 
where the chief had to pass, and where he could 
make sure of his enemy. The hour came, but the 
chief, for some cause, had delayed his departure. 
John Whitmore sat under a tree, waiting hour after 
hour for his appearance, and thinking, at one time 
thoughts of revenge, and afterwards asking himself 
what it was he was about to do. He thought of his 
duty to God, who bids us forgive our enemies, yea, 
even love them. His mind underwent great changes 
and perturbations. After three hours' waiting in the 
woods, the resolution to shoot De Coignee melted 
away, and when at last the chief appeared, alone, 
painted and plumed, John Whitmore, asking pardon 
of God and men for sparing him — if it were wrong to 
do so — allowed him to pass by unscathed within a 
few yards, and unwitting of the danger which was so 
near to him. 

This triumph of Christian love over justifiable 
revenge for the deepest of injuries was a source of 
thankful satisfaction to this good man, who some- 
times, although only in the bosom of his family, 



122 MEMOIR OF JOHN WHITMORE. 

would refer to it. He lived to a good old age, one of 
the most successful and prosperous farmers in the 
district, and died in 1853. His son and family still 
occupy the old home on the Lake Road. A fine 
portrait of the good old man is in the possession of 
his son-in-law, William Kirby. 

His worthy partner in life, Magdalene Servos, had 
also been a witness to the murder of her grand- 
father, Thomas Servos, who was killed by a troop of 
dragoons sent by General Washington to take him 
prisoner, dead or alive, as a spirited, active and brave 
Loyalist — a class of men whom Washington feared 
and hated and persecuted to the utmost of his power. 
Thomas Servos lived at his mills and farm on the 
Charlotte River, near Schoharie, New York. As an 
officer of the militia of the province he had served in 
the French war, and was present at the siege and 
capture of Fort Niagara when it was taken by Gen. 
Sir Wm. Johnson in 1759. The Servos murder was 
a cruel, vindictive act on the part of General Wash- 
ington, who was ever incapable of a generous feeling 
towards the Loyalists, who were as sincere and con- 
scientious in their sentiments and opinions as he was 
himself, perhaps more so. 

Magdalene Servos was a child in the cradle when 
her grandfather was murdered by Washington's 
dragoons. Four of his sons — ardent Loyalists — were 
actively engaged in Butler's Rangers and with the 
Northern Confederate Indians all through the Revolu- 
tionary War. They served with honor as officers of 



MEMOIR OF JOHN WHIT MORE. 123 

the First Lincoln Militia in the War of 1812, and in 
the rebellion of 1837, when Col. John D. Servos com- 
manded the regiment. A brave, loyal family on all 
occasions. 

Magdalene Servos Whitmore was a worthy 
daughter of such a family ; a pious, good, quiet, 
tender wife as ever was ; a woman beloved by all 
around her. She died in the house of the writer in 
Niagara, in 1854. 

This worthy couple are buried in the Servos bury- 
ing-ground. Lake Road, Niagara Township. Mr. 
Peter Whitmore, their son, still living, resides in the 
old home. 

Such were the men and women who laid the 
foundations of Upper Canada, and gave it the ever- 
loyal character and impress of justice and integrity 
which distinguishes this Province, and, indeed, our 
whole Dominion. May it last forever. 






CHAPTER X. 
THE NELLES FAMILY. 

Among the early inhabitants of the Niagara 
District were the Nelles family. Some were United 
Empire Loyalists, and others were settlers. There 
are many of the name of Nelles living in Lincoln, 
Haldimand and Brant counties. 

Many of the U. E. Loyalists came from a settle- 
ment in the Mohawk Valley, from that section called 
the Palatinate, in memory of the land from which 
they came. The Palatinate in Europe, which was 
their home, was a portion of Germany lying on both 
sides of the Rhine. It had been cruelly devastated 
by the French during the wars of Louis XIV. 
Under the protection of Queen fAnne, about 3,000 
emigrants, nearly all Lutherans, were landed in New 
York in June, 17 10, and lands were assigned them 
on the banks of the Hudson ; but these not proving 
satisfactory, they changed until a final settlement 
was made in the Mohawk Valley. Many of their 
descendants remain there at the present time. It 
was here their ancestors dwelt happily and became 
very prosperous. At the time of the Revolution it 

124 



THE NELLES FAMILY. i25 

was considered the garden of New York State. Two 
Nelles brothers came in 1710 with the other emi- 
grants. They had numerous descendants. On the 
mihtary rolls of New York, from 1776 to 1783, there 
are no less than fifty-seven Nelles soldiers.' The 
Nelleses had large possessions, and were prosperous 
in every way. When the church at Stone Arabia was 
built, six of the Nelleses gave £160, while another 
built the spire, and another gave the ground upon 
which it was built. The church still exists. Henry 
Nelles, a Loyalist, had been obliged to find a refuge 
in Canada. When a retaliatory expedition was being 
arranged to devastate the Mohawk Valley, Henry 
Nelles stipulated that the church of his fathers should 
be spared. That stipulation was faithfully kept. 
During the French and Indian wars prior to the 
Revolution, the Nelles names showed they did good 
service. 

These facts are from a paper by Judge Nelles, read 
October 17th, 1894, before the Kansas Society. 

In the " Old Trails on the Niagara River," by Mr 
Severance, the name of Capt. Nelles is found as being 
at Fort Niagara in September, 1781. 

As before mentioned, Mrs. Nelles's name is the 
first in the honor roll of the five women refugees 
of 1776. ^ 



CHAPTER XI. 

VISIT OF PRINCE EDWARD, DUKE OF 
KENT, IN 1791. 

Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and father of 
Queen Victoria, who was commander of His Majesty's 
forces in America, resided for some years in Halifax, 
Nova Scotia, and was extremely popular. He had a 
summer residence about six miles from Halifax, called 
the Prince's Lodge. All that remains at the present 
time is a wooden pavilion called the Music Room.* 
An incident that recalls the fast-fading memories 
of that period is given in the " Life of the Rev. 
Jacob Bailey,"-|- who, with his family, were refugees 
from Maine. Mr. Bailey suffered much from his 
loyalty. It was through many difficulties and dan- 
gers they escaped to Halifax. He had a son who 
was baptized by the name of Charles. It had been 
the intention of Mr. and Mrs. Bailey that his name 
should be Hugh Percy, but Mrs. Callahan, the god- 
mother, seeing so many patriots in the church, was 
afraid to give the name, and called him Charles, the 
name of her husband. He was baptized Charles, and 

* Picturesque Canada. _t Life of Jacob Bailey. 

126 



VISIT OF THE DUKE OF KENT. 127 

always signed his name so. He was a remarkably 
handsome person, and when the Prince was visiting 
Annapolis he observed the lad, who, among many 
others, had assembled to bid him welcome. He 
inquired who he was, and was so pleased with his 
person and address that he prevailed upon his father 
to allow him to be taken under his own care and 
provide for him. Accordingly the lad was placed in 
the Military Secretary's of^ce, and was subsequently 
given a commission in his own regiment (the ist 
Royals), where he served with honor until the War of 
1 8 12. The regiment was ordered to Canada. He 
was then a captain high up on the list. Being at 
Fort Niagara when it was re-taken in 1813, he was 
conspicuous for his bravery. He was killed at the 
battle of Chippewa. 

The Prince visited Niagara in 1791, and while 
there went to Niagara Falls. To get a view at that 
time below the Falls the branches of the trees were 
cut, to make steps to get down to the water's edge. 
On his return from the Falls he dined at Queenston 
with Judge Robert Hamilton. 

During the famine years of 1787 and 1788* the 
settlers had been aided by the Commissary Depart- 
ment, who were now demanding payment. A depu- 
tation waited upon the Prince, who heard them with 
sympathy, and ordered the officials to cancel every 
charge. " My father," he said, " is not a merchant to 

* Annals of Niagara. 



128 



VISIT OF THE DUKE OF KENT 



deal in bread and ask payment for food granted for 
the relief of his loyal subjects." 

The Prince spent two weeks at Niagara. Numerous 
entertainments marked his visit, and the generation 
of ladies who lived at that period never ceased to 
relate the introduction they had, and the balls in 
which they had danced with the Prince as their 
partner. The people came from the remotest settle- 
ments to pay their respects to the son of the good 
King, under whom they enjoyed the protection of 
British subjects. 












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MAGAZINE INSIDE FORT GEORGE, 1 888. 



CHAPTER XII. 

TIVO HISTORIC BURNINGS. 

BURNING OF NIAGARA. 

The burning of Newark (now Niagara) took place 
on December loth, 1813, under circumstances which 
produced a hatred long cherished, and a retaliation 
swift and vindictive. 

It had been necessary for General McClure to 
evacuate Fort George. To destroy the fort was not 
considered sufficient, but the torch was ordered to be 
applied to the town. The winter of 181 3 set in 
unusually early. The cold was intense and the 
ground covered with a deep snow. In the midst of 
a snowstorm the inhabitants were commanded to 
leave their homes. Half an hour's notice was all 
that was given. Those who could do so carried their 
furniture into the streets, others fled to the country. 
Mrs. Lowell, the grandmother of the late James 
Lowell, M.P., rose from a sick-bed, and on horseback 
went to the Short Hills. Mrs. Dickson, whose hus- 
band was a prisoner in Fort Niagara with many 
others, was carried by the soldiers out of her house 
on a bed and laid upon the snow. Lying there she 
9 129 



130 TJVO HISTORIC BURNINGS. 

saw her home and its contents reduced to ashes. A 
fine Hbrary, for which Mr. Dickson had paid ^600, 
was also consumed. Scarcely a book was left. The 
public buildings were destroyed, among them the 
registry office. A few books withstood the flames. 
The charred covers and discolored pages bear evi- 
dence of that day's destruction. St. Mark's Church, 
which had been used by both parties as a hospital, 
was also burned, its stone walls alone remaining. 
Fortunately the home of the rector, Rev. Mr. Addison, 
was on the lake shore, three miles distant from the 
town. At an early period the parish records had 
been conveyed to this place for safety. The mar- 
riage register of St. Mark's from 1792 to 1832 is 
valuable as it is interesting, containing much that 
corroborates the history and customs of the time. 

Mr. Merritt, in his diary, says : " During the night, 
by the glare, they discovered Niagara was on fire. 
As they advanced near the burning town, a sad 
sight presented itself — heaps of burning coals, and 
the streets full of furniture. Mr. Gordon's house 
was the only one left standing. Niagara was in 
ruins, a heap of smouldering ashes." 

The attempt to blow up Fort George was a partial 
failure. The enemy retired in such haste that his tents 
were left standing. Colonel Murray at once took 
steps to retaliate for this departure from the usages 
of war. On the night of December 19th* of the same 



* One of the traditions of the re-capture is, that when the attacking 
force entered so unexpectedly, the ofiicers were playing whist, and one 
asked, "What is trumps ? " The answer came, " British bayonets ! " 



TJVO HISTORIC BURNINGS. 131 

year, an attacking force of six hundred and fifty men 
surprised and captured Fort Niagara. The store- 
houses, full of clothing and of camp equipage, twenty- 
seven pieces of cannon, three thousand stand of arms 
and many rifles fell into their hands, a prize of great 
value to the captors. Colonel Chapin and Captain 
Leonard were taken, and sent as prisoners to Que- 
bec. Youngstown, Lewiston, Manchester and Buffalo 
were burned, and the whole American frontier was 
made to suffer. The revenge of war is more terrible 
than the cause which produces it, 

BURNING OF ST. DAVID'S. 

The burning of St. David's by the American forces, 
July 19th, 1814, was another of those unjustifiable and 
indefensible acts which added to the cruelties of the 
struggle and increased the hatred towards the 
invaders. It was never defended by the Americans, 
and the officer at whose command the torch was 
applied was court-martialed and dismissed from the 
service. The circumstances as related by Mrs. 
Secord, wife of Major David Secord, were verified by 
her daughter, Mrs. Woodruff, and the husband, Mr. 
Woodruff, gave additional information. 

A picket of Canadian volunteers was stationed 
under the command of Cornet Henry Woodruff near 
the place now owned by Mr. Fairlie. This point was 
on the direct road leading to Shipman's Corners (now 
St. Catharines). Another road led to the same place, 
striking the main road at the Ten Mile Creek (now 



132 TWO HISTORIC BURNINGS. 

Homer). A few rods from Mr. Fairlie's was the road 
leading to the Short Hills, called the Thorold road, 
and another road leading to the township of Stamford. 
An American scouting party attempted to pass 
through the line, but was warned not to make the 
attempt, as it would be fired upon. In spite of the 
warning the party pushed on, and was fired upon. 
No one was injured, but the horse of the commanding 
officer was killed. He made terrible threats of ven- 
geance, upon which Cornet Woodruff told him " he 
should be thankful that it was his horse instead of 
himself" No one thought anything serious would 
result. Two days after, in the afternoon, notice was 
given to the people to leave, as the place was to be 
burned. One cannot describe the surprise and terror 
with which these tidings were received. The women 
were busy at their usual avocations. Their husbands 
and brothers were away. Hurriedly the children 
were sent to a place of safety, Mrs. Secord directing 
them to go to her brother's, Mr. Thomas Page, of 
Pelham. Few had horses, wagons or conveyances of 
any kind ; mostly all had to go on foot. Mrs. Secord 
placed some of the more valuable articles of furniture 
in a wagon, hoping to save them, but she was unable 
to get them away. Then collecting her own cows 
and those of her neighbors, she drove them to Lewis 
Smith's, a farm about a mile from St. David's. It 
was near 6 p.m. when she left, and she could see the 
gleam of the bayonets as the Americans came on 
the Oueenston road. She said: " During the evening 



TIVO HISTORIC BURNINGS. 133 

we could see the smoke and flames rising from our 
burning homes. The road was filled with people, 
and I had hard work to find my children. The next 
morning my husband was on patrol duty with 
another officer. As he saw the crowd, ' That looks 
like my flock,' he said to his companion, and rode 
rapidly forward to see what was the cause. He soon 
heard the dreadful story, that his home, the mills and 
other buildings were nothing but a heap of ashes. 
We stayed some days in Pelham, and when I came 
back I found, in pure wantonness, they had destroyed 
a number of young pigs and burned them in the 
ruins of our house. This at the time, seemed my 
greatest loss, for I had depended upon these for 
winter use." 

Said Mrs. Sarah Clement (sister of Lewis Smith) : 
" My bread was about ready for the oven when the 
word came. A neighbor suggested that the bread 
should be taken with us, and baked when we reached 
a place where it could be done. It was turned from 
the bread-trough into table-cloths, and we started on 
our way. The afternoon was hot, and the bread kept 
on rising and escaping from the table-cloths. You 
could have tracked us by the dough along the road. 
At last, when I came near a field where there was a 
pool of water, I climbed the fence and shook the 
dough into the water as well as I could. When we 
returned some days after, the dough was still floating 
upon the water. I said, ' Cast thy bread upon the 
waters, and thou shalt find it after many days.' Sad 



134 TIVO HISTORIC BURNINGS. 

as we were, we laughed." That portion of Scripture 
and Mrs. Clement have ever been inseparably con- 
nected. Only one house was left — a house occupied 
by Mr. Quick. Mrs. Stephen Secord with another 
woman managed to save an outbuilding. After the 
fire she repaired another with her own hands. 

In the country every house was filled to reple- 
tion, not only with the homeless, but the sick and 
the wounded. The neighboring places offered help. 
Ancaster opened its hospitable doors. As we look 
upon the numerous thriving towns and the populous 
cities of our day, it is hard to realize that these places 
at that time had no existence. There is a book by 
the Rev. John Carroll, which gives some reminiscences 
of that time which are worth repeating. He says 
that after Proctor's defeat his mother with her five 
children, and another family with children, found 
shelter in a log-cabin, with a bark roof, near the 
Upper Ten Mile Creek. They made a fire in the 
grove near the house, and there was an orchard with 
nearly ripe fruit. Here they stayed for some weeks. 
As the weather grew colder they moved to St. 
Catharines, then the Twelve Mile Creek. After this 
they went to Hamilton in a cart drawn by two oxen, 
for the use of which they paid $30. Here they lived 
in a log-house with one room and an open fire, the 
flooring loose. A sick officer was already there, and, 
as the children's noise could not be borne, a fire was 
made outside to warm themselves. This was done 



TWO HISTORIC BURNINGS. 135 

till "warmer quarters" were found. The warmer 
quarters are thus described : 

"The sappers and miners dug places ten feet square, with 
an entrance at one side by means of a trench, like the descent 
to a root-house. The roof of slabs rested on the surface of the 
ground and met in the centre. The only light came from the 
chimney, which was low and capacious, and a hole in the door 
without glass. If this was left open the snow drifted in, and it 
had to be shovelled out through the small hole." 

Such were the quarters where Hamilton now 
stands. On the retreat from Niagara a sick soldier, 
lying by the roadside with the ague, asked Mrs. 
Carroll for a handkerchief to tie around his aching- 
head. She had not this to give him. Then he asked 
for a string, and she had not even that. Prices of 
food were very high, and the volunteers often were 
allowed to return to their homes to sow the grain, 
then afterwards to reap. 

Mrs. Secord tells the following : " The Indians were 
constantly asking for money to buy liquor. It was 
dangerous to refuse, and more dangerous to give, for 
a drunken Indian cannot be controlled. One time an 
Indian demanded money. I told him I had none, 
though a belt was on my person containing my hus- 
band's pay, which he had sent to me for safe keeping. 
He soon raised his tomahawk, thinking to frighten 
me, but I knew my only safety was to stand my 
ground. Had I given him anything, there would have 
been no end to his demands. We had trained our 
children to obey signals, and they knew when help 



136 TWO HISTORIC BURNINGS. 

was needed without speaking." There was no paper 
money at that time. It was all gold, silver and Brock 
coppers. Leather stamped and used for change is 
one of the traditions of the war. 

Another aged friend says : " A young officer, son 
of an English baronet, was brought from Niagara to 
my house in the month of August. He had been 
severely wounded in one of the frequent skirmishes. 
There was a man to take care of him, but he suc- 
cumbed to his wounds on the following day, and was 
buried in the Presbyterian burying-ground at Stam- 
ford." The name is unfortunately forgotten. 

In the private burial-places were buried many whose 
names are now forgotten. It is one [of the saddest 
features of the private burying-grounds, as they pass 
from the possession of the original proprietors, that 
no provision is made that the graves of the dead 
should be respected. The ploughshare of the new 
occupant soon levels the spot where the forgotten 
brave and the ancestors of our country sleep. The 
old and the new possessors alike share the odium of 
the desecration and destruction of those sacred spots. 

It was at the house of this same friend, Mrs. 
Richard Woodruff, whose kitchen was taken posses- 
sion of by the Indians, that a large pig was killed 
and roasted before the fire. The grease ran across 
the floor and over the doorstep. She was upstairs 
attending to her children. As the feast went on, the 
chief in command came to her, asking, " Had she a 
mother ? " On being told she had, he said, " White 



TIVO HISTORIC BURNINGS. 137 

squaw go to mother," for he feared his followers 
would be uncontrollable. She needed no second 
warning, and went to her mother. 

Mrs. David Secord said : " There had been some of 
our own Indians staying in my house. They had 
occupied unfinished rooms in the upper part of the 
house. Unknown to me, when leaving, they put 
their unused war-paint under some loose boards in 
the floor. A few days after some American Indians 
occupied the same place. The loose boards attracted 
their attention, and the war-paint was soon discovered. 
With fearful yells they commenced to question and 
threaten me. Fortunately my young son ran to the 
American quarters for help. The officer came at 
once, bringing soldiers with him, and none too soon, 
for one of the Indians was brandishing his tomahawk. 
The Indians were taken away and soldiers put in 
their place. There was a ravine running back of the 
house we occupied. The front and upper rooms were 
always taken by the officers and soldiers. We lived 
in the back part of the house and cellar kitchens. 
But," she added, " I will say this, the officers were 
courteous and endeavored to see that we were well 
treated. Both British and American officers were 
alike in this respect." 

Such is war. Is it any wonder that women hate 
its name? None but women who have passed 
through the perils of war can realize what ruin it 
brings to the home, the wasted life and property, and 



138 TIVO HISTORIC BURNINGS. 

the aftermath of hatred which always is sure to 
follow. 

Said another: "We had long before buried our 
silver and many articles of value. They were taken 
up and put in fresh places. Sometimes the place 
was forgotten. Long years after, the spade and the 
plough turned up those forgotten treasures ruined 
and useless." 

An aged friend said : " One morning a large Ameri- 
can force marched through St. David's. I sold over 
$ioo worth of whiskey from one barrel before break- 
fast. I had a barrel of whiskey and a barrel of water, 
As the whiskey was sold I kept replenishing with 
water, and towards the last it would not have hurt 
your conscience to sell a drink of it, for it was so 
weak it could hurt no one." 

St. David's never regained the size and importance 
of former times. Those that owned rebuilt, some on 
the old foundations, but none as large as before- 
Many moved away, and though it had breweries' 
distilleries, furniture manufactory, mills and the other 
occupations of village life, the grist-mills are about 
all that at present remain. There was a bank for a 
short period, and Mackenzie issued his paper here a 
few times, but in what building has not been posi- 
tively ascertained. 

Another incident of that time was related by Mrs. 
Secord : " I was very ill when my baby was born. 
The woman who took care of me had the baby on her 
lap before the fire. She had been warming its feet, 




POLLY PACE (MRS. DAVID SECORO). 
(Lent hv iMiss X. Woodruft".) 



TWO HISTORIC BURNINGS. 139 

and, as the baby cried, I tried to waken her. She had 
gone to sleep. I called in vain, then I got up ; but 
my poor baby's feet were blistered, and she died in a 
few days." 

Such was the life of the women — to toil in the 
house and in the field, in constant terror for the lives 
of all most dear to them. Mrs. Secord lived to a 
good old age, and is buried with others of the honored 
dead in the graveyard at St. David's. Her portrait 
is given, one of the noblest women of the olden time. 

Mrs. Woodruff (daughter of Mrs. Secord) relates 
that a party of British Indians had a young girl whom 
they had taken captive. Our hearts pitied her, but 
we dared not interfere. Where she came from, or her 
name, we could not learn, but afterwards were told 
that she had been restored to her friends. Whether 
this was true or false we never knew, and could only 
hope it was so. 

To add to the miseries of that period a set of 
miscreants who follow in the wake of armies, called 
" Grey-coats," who were white men disguised as 
Indians, plundered everything upon which they could 
lay their hands. 

The home of the writer was for many years a brick 
house which had been built upon the foundations of 
the place burned in 1814. In making some changes 
a charred beam was brought to view ; it was evidently 
a relic of the past. In straightening a creek in the 
rear of the house a 24-pound cannon-ball was found. 



140 TIVO HISTORIC BURNINGS. 

It was a frequent occurrence to pick up balls of 
various sizes in the neighborhood. 

The following is copied from Mr. Lossing's " Pic- 
torial Field Book of the War of 1812," page 815 : 

" Colonel Stone, of the New York Militia, while out on a 
foraging expedition, wantonly burned the little village or hamlet 
of St. David's, a short distance from Queenston. Similar 
unwarrantable acts caused great exasperation against the 
Americans. General Brown promptly dismissed Stone from 
the service, as a punishment for his crime, in accordance with 
the sentence of a court-martial." 

Lossing has a foot-note to the above, written by an 
American officer : 

" 'The militia have burned several private dwellings,' wrote 
the gallant Major McFarland of the Seventy-third Infantry, 
who was killed a short time after at Niagara Falls, and on the 
19th burnt the village of St. David's, consisting of about thirty 
or forty houses. This was done within three miles of the camp. 
I never witnessed such a scene, and had not the commanding 
Colonel Stone been disgraced and sent out of the army I should 
have resigned my commission." 





STAMFORD PARK, 1 863. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

STAMFORD PARK. 

" Stamford Park, the residence of Sir Peregrine 
Maitland, was built on a range of rising ground which 
overlooks the country and Lake Ontario for a great 
distance. Near this spot, by the blowing down of a 
tree, were found a quantity of human bones. A 
number of skeletons were found on digging, with 
Indian beads and pipes ; also some conch shells, 
shaped apparently for musical instruments, under 
several of the heads. Other perforated shells were 
found, such as are said to be known only on the 
western coast of the continent within the tropics. 
Brass and copper utensils are also found. The ground 
looks as if it had been defended by a palisade." — 
NortJiern Traveller^ 1830. 

Stamford Park was visited in 1837 by Mrs. Jamie- 
son, wife of Vice-Chancellor Jamieson. She writes : 
" It is the only place in Upper Canada combining our 
ideas of an elegant, well-furnished English villa and 
ornamented grounds, with some of the grandest and 
wildest features of the forest scene." 

Sir Peregrine Maitland, who was appointed Lieu- 

141 



142 STAMFORD PARK. 

tenant-Governor of Upper Canada in 1818, while 
living in Toronto, built a fine summer residence in 
the township of Stamford. It faced towards Lake 
Ontario, and was on one of the highest points of land 
in the township. The building was of brick and 
stuccoed, and contained twenty-two rooms. The 
kitchen and servants' hall were in the detached build- 
ing in the rear, and connected with the main part by 
a covered way. The trees surrounding the place were 
planted with an eye to beauty. At the right was the 
children's garden, and " The Governor's House," as it 
was called, for many years was a pleasant resort. In 
the drawing-room were marble mantel-pieces, the 
carvings being scenes from the Iliad. 

This circumstance was related by Mrs. Hobson, 
wife of Sheriff Hobson, of Welland, and before her 
marriage Miss Eliza Clow, of St. David's. During 
the residence of Sir Peregrine and Lady Sarah, they 
and their children often attended church in what is 
now the Methodist Church, in St. David's. Their 
seat was at the right of the pulpit, under the west 
window. Mr. Richard Woodruff prepared cushioned 
seats for them. When they left Upper Canada, upon 
Sir Peregrine's appointment as Governor of Nova 
Scotia, there was a sale of their house-furnishings. 
Mr. R. Woodruff bought some of the wine-glasses and 
a small gilt circular mirror. Mr. William Woodruff 
bought some of the drawing-room chairs. Many 
homes still possess relics purchased at that time. 
After his departure the place was occupied by Mr. 





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STAMFORD PARK. 143 

Green, a banker. It passed through various hands, 
until it was destroyed by fire in April, 1842. A 
sketch of the ruins was taken in 1863. No vestige of 
the house now remains. A valuable deposit of sand 
was found near the site. A short branch of the 
Grand Trunk Railway was laid to the spot, a derrick 
and other appliances were erected, and soon the 
demolition was complete. The children's garden and 
the trees planted by them were destroyed. The lodge 
at the entrance to the grounds is all that remains to 
remind us of one of the early Governors of Upper 
Canada. 

Among the people of the Niagara District, Isaac 
Brock and Peregrine Maitland were popular names 
bestowed upon their sons. 






CHAPTER XIV. 

RECOLLECTIONS OF 1837 AND 1838. 

To many the incidents about to be related may 
seem trivial, but they were not considered so at that 
time, and they illustrate the intolerance which over- 
rides the right of every one to his own opinion. 

That portion of the Niagara District which was 
represented in the Assembly of Upper Canada had 
sent men of Liberal opinions. Major David Secord* 
at the time of the rebellion was an aged man. The 
preceding pages have shown the sacrifices made by 
himself and relatives, the loyal services they gave and 
were willing to give as subjects of the English gov- 
ernment. The arbitrary measures of the Family 
Compact previous to 1837 met his disapprobation, 
and he took the only legitimate way of condem- 
nation, by voting as a member of Parliament for 
reforms. 

Mr. William Woodruff was also a Reform member, 
and voted as he believed for the best interests of 
Canada. He had been in the battle of Queenston 



* It was customary at that time to call successful business men 
"kings." Major Secord was called "King David," and Mr. Richard 
Woodruff "King Dick." 

144 



RECOLLECTIONS OF 1S37 AND 1838. 145 

Heights, and served as a volunteer through the War 
of 1812. Richard Woodruff,* his eldest brother, was a 
member at the commencement of the rebellion. He 
had also as a volunteer been at the capture of Detroit 
and Chrysler's Farm, for which, many years after- 
wards, he received a medal. 

These men all lived in St. David's. They had 
taken the only constitutional way of expressing their 
disapproval of the high-handed actions of the Gov- 
ernment of the day. Mackenzie's rebellion met their 
distinct disapprobation, though they had a personal 
friendship for the man. Major Secord, as before 
stated, had given Robert Gourlay a shelter and kindly 
care for many weeks at his house, when he was sick 
and friendless, and when no one else dared to do so. 
St. David's thereafter acquired the name of a " Rebel 
hole." As the regulars and volunteers passed and 
repassed on their way to and from Chippewa, many 
threats were made, and the hope expressed that the 
place would be destroyed. In the spring of the year 
1838, Mr. Woodruff'sf father died at Niagara Falls, 
N.Y., and was buried at St. David's. His son-in-law, 
Judge De Veaux, at whose home he died, was at the 

* " King Dick " commenced his life as a merchant in James Secord's 
store at Queenston. 

t Mr. Woodruff's signature : 




10 




146 RECOLLECTIONS OF 1837 AND 1838. 

funeral. He was a small man, and how or when the 
story originated that he was Mackenzie in disguise 
was never known. But so it was. A detachment from 
Oueenston was sent to St. David's. Mr. Woodruff's 
servants were first interrogated, and he was then 
taken from his bed to Queenston for examination. 
Fortunately for himself, he was able to prove that 
he was not harboring a rebel. Even as late as 1 840, 
when the meeting was held at Oueenston for the re- 
construction of Brock's monument, Mr. Woodruff was 
not permitted to speak, and the letter published in 
this volume was written to his friend, Mr. Thorburn, 
at that time. 

Another incident of that period may be given. A 
young man, on the 4th of July, rode on horseback 
through the village, dressed in a pink cambric jacket, 
and carrying a lance with pennon, in imitation of the 
Lancers, which were stationed at Queenston. It was 
evident that it was the foolish prank of a young man 
who had taken too much of Canada's curse. He rode 
up and down the street more than once. It enraged 
an old pensioner, who went to Queenston and in- 
formed the officer stationed there that the people of 
St. David's were celebrating the 4th of July. The 
officer took some men and marched to the place. 
His men were halted in front of the Methodist Church, 
and scouts sent forward to reconnoitre, and see what 
was going on. Mr. William Woodruff had heard 
of their approach. When the scouts arrived every 




BROCK'S MONUMENT AND HOME OF WILLIAM LVON 
MACKENZIE, AT QUEENSTON, 1 895. 



RECOLLECTIONS OF 1S37 AND 1838. 147 

house was dark, and the streets quiet, but from 
behind the curtains many anxious hearts were watch- 
ing for the outcome. Mr. Woodruff took the officers 
to his house and treated them, and they returned to 
Oueenston satisfied that their march had been un- 
necessary. The writer had American visitors at that 
time. They went to bed very late, and left as early 
the next morning as they could conveniently get 
away. 

During the winter of 1837-38 the front part of the 
house was closed, and the curtains drawn. A bed 
was put in the sitting-room, our cloaks and hoods on 
chairs, for a hasty flight, and the children slept in the 
adjoining bedroom. 

We took the New York American, published in 
New York City, and most of our news came that 
way, and was from one to two weeks old. The usual 
salutation to visitors or persons on the streets was, 
" What is the news from the seat of war ? " The 
super-loyal wore a narrow band of red flannel around 
their hats. Another fad of that time was lone red 
woollen socks, worn by the men over the boots, and 
reaching to the hips. 

One night, when my mother was sitting by her 
fireside later than usual, she heard a slight tap at the 
window. Thinking it was a call to go to a sick 
neighbor, by some one who did not wish to disturb the 
house, she went to the door. A gentleman stood 
there holding his horse by the bridle, who, in an 



148 RECOLLECTIONS OF 18S7 AND 1838. 

agitated voice, asked to be directed the nearest way 
to the Niagara River. The directions were given, 
and the inquirer rode carefully away. Who he was 
we never heard, but whoever he was he escaped, and 
the circumstance was not mentioned till long after. 

The Sunday before Moreau was hung (for the exe- 
cution took place on Monday morning) wagons were 
passing all the day and night, filled with men, women 
and children. There were but few carriages in those 
days. Chairs were placed in the wagons, covered 
with quilts and blankets. Such was the usual way. 
A liberal price in money and in land had been offered 
for a hangman, but none appeared, and the sheriff, 
most unwillingly, had to perform the duty. Moreau 
sleeps in the Catholic burying-ground at Niagara. 
He acknowledged he had been deceived into a useless 
adventure. 

Before the invasion from Michigan took place, my 
mother's relatives informed us such a project was 
contemplated, and advised us to leave. My father 
could not leave his business, and my mother preferred 
to remain with him. Such was the way people on 
the frontier and near it lived in those days — the fear 
of invasion, and the unjust suspicion which out- 
weighed and forgot a life of honorable service. 



CHAPTER XV. 

BURNING OF THE STEAMER ''CAROLINE:' 

The destruction of the steamer Caroline during 
the rebellion of 1837 is one of the oft-quoted inci"^ 
dents of that time. Perhaps an account given by 
one of the participators may not be unacceptable. 

On Thursday evening, the 29th of December, 1837, 
A. C. Currie and Walter Wagstaff were doing patrol 
duty on the Niagara frontier along the river above 
Chippewa. When returning to Chippewa, and near 
the bridge which crosses the Welland River (then 
called Chippewa Creek), they saw a crowd on the 
bank, and. heard a call, "Volunteers for this boat ! " 
Currie at once dismounted, and gave his horse to 
Wagstaff to take back to the camp. Offering his 
services, he was asked if he could row, and replying in 
the affirmative, was immediately accepted. The party 
consisted of seven boats, the men armed with pistols, 
cutlasses and boarding-pikes. They left Chippewa 
about 1 1 p.m., not knowing their destination, or what 
they were expected to do. It was supposed they 
were going to Navy Island, where the patriot army 
was encamped. They proceeded up the river above 

149 



150 BURNING OF THE ''CAROLINE." 

the island, and approached the American shore. In 
the darkness and fog two of the boats lost their way 
and returned to Chippewa. The other five were 
grouped together a short distance above Schlosser. 
Captain Drew, the commander, then told them the 
object of the expedition was to cut out and carry off 
the steamer Caroline^ which for some days had been 
employed in carrying supplies to the so-called 
patriots on Navy Island. They were ordered to let 
the boats drift down the river towards the wharf, 
where the Caroline was fastened, to keep perfectly 
still, to be at their oars, and when challenged or fired 
upon, to at once board and capture the vessel. 
When near the Caroline they were challenged and 
immediately fired upon. That shot wounded Lieu- 
tenant McCormac, the officer in charge of the boat in 
which was Charles Currie. They pushed forward, 
boarded the Caroline, and were soon in possession, 
the few on board quickly escaping to the shore. In 
the excitement, one person by the name of Durfee, 
from Buffalo, was shot. This was the only life lost. 
An attempt was made to get up steam to take the 
Caroline across to Chippewa, but this requiring too 
much time, and it being reported that a large num- 
ber were coming from the island to the rescue, she 
was towed into the stream and the torch applied. 
Before this was done search was made to see if any 
one was concealed. The only person found was a 
boy from Lower Canada, who was taken across to 
Chippewa and afterwards returned to his friends. 



BURNING OF THE ''CAROLINE." 151 

The Caroline soon drifted into the rapids, lighting 
her path to destruction and illuminating the shores 
as she was borne along. A fire had been lighted at 
Chippewa at the mouth of the Welland River, for 
which the boats were steered. When passing below 
Navy Island they were fired upon, but the shots did 
no harm. Mr. Currie took from the Caroline a pillow 
and a water-bucket. On the wharf he picked up the 
butt end of a pistol, which he still owns as a relic of 
his experiences in 1837. 

Among the volunteers in the boat was Mr. John 
Mewburn, son of the late Dr. Mewburn, of Stamford, 
and brother of Dr. F. Mewburn, of Toronto, and of 
H. C. Mewburn, Esq., of Stamford, in the county of 
Welland. Mr. John Mewburn soon after went to 
England, where for fifty years he was in the Bank of 
England, retiring after half a century of faithful ser- 
vice with a handsome allowance and a recognition of 
honorable service. Charles Currie and Mr. Mewburn 
still survive. 

(Rev. Canon Bull says that Captain McCormac 
was wounded in the wrist, and that his mother 
dressed the wound for several days.) 



CHAPTER XVI. 

SAMUEL ZIMMERMAN. 

It is but a slight act of justice to recall the name 
of one who fifty years ago was the foremost man in 
the Niagara peninsula, and whose brief career was 
the commencement of great improvements, not only 
at Niagara Falls, but throughout the Province of 
Ontario. 

Samuel Zimmerman was born in Huntington 
County, Penn., March 17th, 181 5. His parents were 
not wealthy ; the family was a large one, and their 
education the ordinary school of that period. Upon 
the death of his father and mother he assumed the 
charge of his three younger brothers and his sister. 
He educated them, and trained his brothers to assist 
in carrying out his plans. 

He came to this country as a contractor in 1 842. 
Along with the late James Oswald, of Stamford, and 
others, he constructed four locks and the aqueduct on 
the Welland Canal. His first venture was successful, 
and he turned his attention to larger enterprises. 
Railways and bridges were becoming the necessities 
of the age. Quick in his perceptions, he realized the 

152 



SAMUEL ZIMMERMAN. I53 

possibilities of Niagara Falls and the surrounding 
country. In 1848 he made extensive purchases at 
Niagara Falls and in the locality of the first suspen- 
sion bridge. This place was first called Elgin, then 
Clifton, and now Niagara Falls. People are still 
living who remember when the " forest primeval " 
was cut down to make way for what now is a great 
railway terminus. They recollect the cable that first 
crossed the river with its iron cradle, and the first 
passenger bridge. Now from Lewiston to Fort Erie 
there are five bridges, representing the highest type 
of engineering skill, strength and beauty. These also 
represent four others that have been taken down or 
destroyed. The International Bridge at Black Rock 
and the Cantilever are the only original ones re- 
maining. 

Previous to Mr. Zimmerman's purchase of the 
Clifton House and other lands, the buildings were 
of the most unsightly kind. " There is but one 
Niagara Falls in the world," and his ideas were in 
unison with the place. He bought, at liberal prices, 
the rights of the property holders. When one man 
refused to sell, he bought land and built the man a 
substantial stone house. As prosperity attended his 
efforts his views enlarged. During his short career 
he visited England and the continent more than 
once, and came back with the determination to make 
still more attractive the natural beauties of the place. 
After his marriage in 1848, to Miss Woodruff, daugh- 
ter of Richard Woodruff, Esq., of St. David's, he at 



154 SAMUEL ZIMMERMAN. 

once commenced his improvements. Clifton House 
was renovated, a concert hall and six cottages built. 
The grounds which now make the entrance to the 
Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park were laid out, and 
the fountain put in. At Clifton improvements of 
the most substantial character were made. The post- 
office, bank, blocks for dwellings, stores, and water- 
works, were constructed in the most approved and 
modern manner. He encouraged the same spirit in 
others, and was ever ready to assist them in their 
enterprises. He built one hundred and twenty miles of 
the Great Western Railway (now the Grand Trunk),* 
the Cobourg and Peterboro', the Port Hope and 
Lindsay, the Erie and Ontario railways, and at the 
time of his death arrangements were being made to 
build the Great Southern. 

He did much for the town of Niagara. He built 
the steamer Zimmervian^ and was part owner of the 
steamer Peerless, afterwards celebrated as a blockade 
runner in the Civil War of the United States. The 
town of Niagara presented him with an elegant 
silver vase as a recognition of his services. In 1855 
he sold the Clifton property to Messrs. Pierson and 
Benedict for $200,000. A frequent remark of his 
was, " I have no politics, and I will support any party 
who will aid my railway policy." And he did so. 
The people had unlimited faith in his plans. The 



* Before the Great Western Railway was built there was a horse 
railway from Queenston to Chippewa, only used during the season of 
navigation. This was probably the first railway of any kind in Canada. 



"v 



SAMUEL ZIMMERMAN. ]55 

faculty of impressing others with his ideas, to 
draw around him as fellow-workers the men who 
could realize their importance, was possessed by him 
in a supreme degree. He made and unmade many 
political candidates. 

He had intended building a magnificent residence 
at Niagara Falls. Plans had been furnished by Mr. 
Upjohn, a prominent architect in New York. Four 
of the lodges and the stables were built. These still 
remain. The foundations of the house had been 
commenced when Mr. Zimmerman's untimely death 
took place by the terrible railway disaster at the 
Desjardins Canal, near Hamilton, March 13th, 1857. 
It was intended at that time to build a monument on 
his estate. A temporary vault was constructed, and 
on the 17th of March, 1857, his remains were placed 
there with high Masonic honors. The monument 
was never built. Upon the death of the first Mrs. 
Zimmerman, in April, 185 1, he had built a vault and 
erected a monument to her memory in the old bury- 
ing-ground at St. David's. His young sister was also 
buried there a few months previous to his death. 
When his estate passed into other hands, his remains 
were removed to the vault in St. David's, where they 
rest beside his wife and sister. No inscription marks 
the resting-place. 

The house where Mr. Zimmerman lived was sub- 
stantially built. The woodwork in the drawing-room 
and dining-room was of solid walnut, highly polished; 
the second floor of oak. A veranda went around 



156 SAMUEL ZIMMERMAN. 

the building. From this, in summer, the views of the 
Falls were very fine, and also from the long French 
windows in the drawing-room and dining-room. To 
sit outside in summer and at the windows in winter 
was one of the pleasures of his busy life. 

When the Prince of Wales visited Canada, in i860, 
this house was rented and furnished for himself and 
suite. No one who was present at the illumination of 
the Falls and the river the evening of his arrival can 
forget the surpassing beauty and grandeur of the 
scene. Our American neighbors joined with us to 
make it worthy of the place and its visitor. 

When the Clifton House and other portions of the 
estate were bought by the Hon. John T. Bush, the 
house was taken down, and the present mansion 
built on the foundations commenced by Mr. Zim- 
merman. 

The portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Zimmerman, his two 
sons. Miss Zimmerman and his brother, Martin Zim- 
merman, were painted by Mr. Wale. 

The well-known portrait painter, Mr. Huntington, 
of Boston, Mass., and Godfrey Frankenstein, of 
Springfield, Ohio, also painted a portrait of Mrs. 
Zimmerman. Mr. Zimmerman was twice married, 
his last wife being Miss Emmeline Dunn, of Three 
Rivers, Quebec. His sons and his brothers are dead. 
John, the eldest son, married Miss Henry, of Toronto. 
There are two daughters from this marriage. 

Clifton House, so memorable, was destroyed by 
fire on Sunday, the 26th of June, 1898. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE FIRST FENIAN RAID OF 1866. 

For some time before the Fenian Raid the press 
of the United States in various places gave intima- 
tions that Canada would be invaded. Canadians 
were incredulous as to the loud talk of disaffection, 
and did not believe anything so foolish possible. 
They had laughed over that popular air, " The 
Wearing of the Green," which told the world that 
" The shamrock is forbid by law to grow on Irish 
ground," that Irishmen " No more St. Patrick's Day 
we'll keep," and worst of all, that " They're hanging 
men and women, too, for wearing of the green." 
When the Fenians did come but one man joined 
them, and, discomfited and dismayed, they returned 
on the second day to Buffalo, the place from which 
they came. 

The raid takes its place in history to be dealt with, 
and it is only what were the impressions and scenes 
of that time in St. Catharines that will be related 
here. 

During the winter of 1865-66 a letter was sent from 
Lewiston, N.Y., saying a gathering of Fenians was to 

157 



158 THE FIRST FENIAN RAID OF 1866. 

be made from there. A person was sent to confer 
with the writer, but the conclusion arrived at was that 
there was no cause for immediate alarm. Another 
letter was soon after sent from a person in Phila- 
delphia, who had been a resident in this locality for 
many years, and who felt it his duty to report the 
state of feeling and accompanying threats made in 
that city. These letters were forwarded to the mili- 
tary authorities. They felt that something should be 
done as a measure of prevention and intimidation, so 
that an invasion would be prevented. They ordered 
a few companies of volunteers to be called out, to 
place upon duty along the frontier, and they were to 
meet at St. Catharines. Should any demonstration 
be made by the Fenians, the firing of a cannon would 
be the signal to call them together. During the 
night of March 7th, 1866, after midnight, the order 
came, "Call out the volunteers." The cannon was 
fired, and its echoes awakened the slumbering 
citizens. There was a rush of the volunteers to the 
town hall. Many persons hired conveyances and 
took their most valued things away to the neighbor- 
ing villages. The wildest rumors were abroad — that 
18,000 Fenians were crossing Suspension Bridge, and 
the warm reception they were going to meet — but no 
Fenians came. There was a second alarm on the 
eve of the 17th of March. Soon after, the volunteers 
returned to their homes ; but none the less there 
was an intuitive feeling that an attempt would be 
made. Arms and ammunition were distributed, and 




FORT ERIE, 1890. 



THE FIRST FENIAN RAID OF 1866. 159 

more than the usual drill took place. A gentle- 
man from St. Catharines attended a meeting of 
Fenians in Buffalo, heard their wild talk, saw their 
arms and their parade, without a word of remon- 
strance from the authorities. 

Early in the morning of the 1st of June, 1866, news 
came that the invaders were landing at Fort Erie. 
There was hurrying to and fro in hot haste, and the 
volunteers were sent forward. It is the part that St. 
Catharines took that is recorded. The troops left here 
on Friday afternoon. About 3 o'clock on Saturday 
morning a detachment of the Queen's Own passed 
through the street on its way from the Grand Trunk 
to the Welland station, singing cheerily, " Tramp, 
tramp, tramp, the boys are marching." Some of them 
were University students whom many of us knew. A 
few hours after, about 10.30 a.m., came intelligence 
of the fiasco at Ridgeway, and the order following, 
" Call out the Home Guard." The streets were full 
of people, and arms were being distributed in the 
Town Hall. With the bell ringing, the husbands 
and fathers, brothers and sons, with pale faces de- 
scending the steps, the impression made has never 
been forgotten. Soon after word came that the 
wounded were to be sent here, and that the Town 
Hall would be used as a hospital. The women 
gathered and went to work, under the direction of 
Dr. Mack, making bandages, pillows, sheets and 
other things needful for their reception. Carpenters 
were already at work, and soon after midnight the 



160 THE FIRST FENIAN RAID OF 1866. 

place was ready. The number of beds was over 
twenty. It was perhaps 6 a.m. on Sunday morning 
when the sad procession of wounded on stretchers 
passed from the Welland Railway station to the 
temporary hospital. More were brought Sunday 
afternoon, and along with them two wounded Fenians 
and some prisoners. The first thing to be done was 
to prepare breakfast, as most of them had gone 
without food for over twenty hours. The weather 
had been very hot, and their appearance was in keep- 
ing with what they had undergone. None were 
allowed breakfast until after examination, which was 
speedily done. Some were fatally, some dangerously, 
and others lightly wounded. Every care and com- 
fort was given. On Monday their friends arrived. 
Those that could be removed with safety were taken 
to their own homes. The regular army surgeon took 
his position on Sunday evening. Some went from 
here maimed for life, and some died. 

The Fenian prisoners were brought here and put in 
the police cells until they were transferred to Toronto 
jail. In Toronto, a few months after, they were tried, 
with an American lawyer watching the proceedings to 
report if they had a " fair trial." These men were found 
guilty, imprisoned for a few months, pardoned, and 
with a ticket to Suspension Bridge, N.Y., and five 
dollars in their pockets, were returned to the land of 
their adoption, no more, let us hope, to be deceived 
by tales of British cruelty, and that they would be 
welcomed by Canadians as deliverers from British 
tyranny ! So ended the first Fenian Raid. 




JOSEPH I'.RANT 

(THAYKNOANECEA.) 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
BRANT MEMORANDA. 

Pre-eminent in historic fame stands the name of 
the famous Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant), the great 
chief of the Mohawks. Of rare abilities, of unques- 
tioned bravery, princely generosity and fortitude 
under many misfortunes, the wisdom of his views 
and the statesmanship with which he managed and 
held his people together, are proofs that the red man 
has ability which, under just treatment, well deserves 
recognition and encouragement. Brantford has hon- 
ored itself both by its name and erecting the statue 
to his memory. 

No one has suffered more from the untruths started 
by literary people than Brant. He was not at Wyo- 
ming, and though this misstatement was called to the 
poet Campbell's notice, and undoubted proof fur- 
nished, it still remains uncorrected. At that time he 
was in the Scoharie valley seeking to bring out the 
Loyalist refugees of that region. 

Brant died at his home in Burlington, Ont., 24th 
of November, 1807. 

" Brant gave Major Nelles, one of his Ranger 
11 161 



162 BRANT MEMORANDA. 

friends, nine square miles of land. A homestead 
was erected here, which still remains. It was famous 
for the good cheer and hospitality of its owner." — 
Picturesque Canada, p. 488. 

Mollie Brant, wife of Sir William Johnson, and 
sister of the famous Joseph Brant, had great influence 
among her people. She had the respect of the 
English, who wished her to live at Niagara on 
account of this influence over the various tribes who 
were constantly coming and going from that point. 

The readers of American history will recollect 
that in 1775 and 1776 Montgomery and Arnold 
attempted the conquest of Canada. For a few 
months they were successful, but were compelled to 
retreat in June, 1776. One of the episodes of this 
mission was the surrender of an American force at 
the " Cedars," when Major Isaac Butterfield with 
three hundred men surrendered to Captain George 
Foster. Probably it is here the following occurrence 
took place : 

He "saw some service in the French war, though young, and 
at the commencement of the Revolution joined the American 
arms ; was at the battle of Bunker Hill and the principal 
northern battles. He was taken prisoner at the 'Cedars' in 
Canada, and came near losing his life to gratify savage revenge. 
He was bound to a stake, and the faggots piled around him, 
when, it occurring to him that the Indian Chief, Brant, was a 
Mason, he communicated to him the Masonic sign, which 
caused his immediate release and subsequent good treatment. 
He was afterwards promoted to a Colonelcy in a New York 
regiment, and served during the war. He died at Livingston, 
N.Y., June 9th, 1821 ; his widow, April 7th, 1833." 



BRANT MEMORANDA. 163 

This story was told Mr. Taylor by his father many 
years ago. The fact that Mr. McKinstry's life was 
saved by a Masonic sign to an Indian chief is true, 
and Mr. Taylor's father said it was Brant. 

Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. 13, 
p. 42, 1859: 

The John McKinstry mentioned here was a brother 
of Charles McKinstry, the father of David Charles 
McKinstry, who married Nancy Whiting Backus, 
daughter of Sallie Backus, the third wife of Major 
Ingersoll. 

This John McKinstry was born 1745, died June 
9th, 1822. 

Extract from Charles J. Taylor's letter of May 
27th, 1900 : 

"The 'Mr. Hambly' to whom the 'orders' for laying out 
the lots near ' Mohawk Village ' are addressed, was one 
William Hambly (said to have been an Englishman), who was 
a land surveyor and school-master here* the latter years of the 
eighteenth century, married here in 1788, later went to Canada. 
This paper, the autograph, came to me about thirty years ago, 
in a lot ot old papers of Captain Freeman Wheeler, who was 
next neighbor to Mr. Hambly, and who purchased Hambly's 
house and land after Hambly's removal from this place. In 
one old paper of August 30th, 1805, Hambly is described as 
of Township of Woodhouse and District of London, Upper 
Canada." 

* Great Barrington, Mass. 



LETTER OF JOSEPH BRANT. 

^..^^€/^^A /^^^l^ J^_^X/V/ 



ai ' 






Oy^^^or^ 



^ /:>'rm^ 



Lent by Chas. J. Taylor, Esq. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

LETTER OF MRS. THORN. 

Princeton, Ont., Feb. 12th, 1900. 

My mother, Mrs. G. T. Hornor, wishes me to answer your 
letter. 

She knew James IngersoU, the Registrar, and his brother, 
Charles IngersoU, and one sister, Appy, who married William 
Carroll. She also knew a Mrs. Whiting and her daughter. 
Miss Sarah Whiting, from Long Point, or near there, relatives 
of the Ingersolls, whom she met at Charles Ingersoll's. 

You say, " any information in regard to your family will 
be welcome.'' 

I will copy some extracts from the Oxford Gazetteer, by 
T. S. Shenstone, the Registrar of Brant, published in 1S52, 
where he speaks of my grandfather, Thomas Hornor, the first 
Registrar of Oxford County. 

"The late Thomas Hornor, the first white settler of the 
County of Oxford, and for many years its representative, was 
born March 17th, 1767, at Bordentown, New Jersey, then a 
colony of Great Britain; was married in i8oi,byCol. Inger- 
soU, J. P., the father of our much-respected townsman, James 
IngersoU, Esq., the Registrar of the County, and died in 
Burford, August 4th, 1834, of cholera. He came to the County 
of Oxford in company with his cousin, Thomas Watson, in 
1793, before ever a surveyor's chain had jingled in its woods, 
and probably they were the first white persons who ever trod its 
soil. Mr. Hornor proceeded to Albany, N.Y., to purchase the 

165 



166 LETTER OF MRS. THORN. 

materials and engage the mechanics to erect his saw-mill, the 
first erected in the County of Oxford. He packed his goods in 
two small, roughly-made boats, which he launched on the 
River Hudson, near Albany, proceeded up the Hudson to the 
River Mohawk, and up the said river about loo miles, then 
carried their goods and boats across the Norner Creek, thence 
down the Norner Creek to Lake Oneida, across the lake to the 
Oswego River, thence into Lake Ontario ; along the southern 
coast of that lake to the Burlington Bay Beach, drew their boats 
through a small outlet of the bay, and then proceeded across 
the bay and landed near where Sir Allan McNab's castle* now 
stands. The boats were then made fast for future use, and the 
goods drawn by oxen on roughly-made sledges to their destina- 
tion in Blenheim. The mill was got up and in working order in 
the latter part of 1795. 

" Mr. Hornor's principal reason for leaving the United States 
" was his great attachment to the British Crown. 

" In the War of 181 2 several unsuccessful attempts had been 
made by different parties to get the Grand River Indians to 
join the expedition, then being formed by General Brock, to 
attack Detroit. Col. Norton, the Indian agent, could only 
muster nine men. Mr. Hornor, knowing his own influence with 
the Indians, collected seventy-five Indian warriors and marched 
to the scene of action, notwithstanding the American general, 
Hull, had^issued his proclamation refusing to give quarter to 
any white man found fighting beside an Indian. After remain- 
ing on the enemy's frontier for two or three weeks he was 
dismissed and sent home, or rather toward home, for he and 
his men had only proceeded as far as Pike's Creek, on Lake St. 
Clair, when he was summoned back in great haste by General 
Proctor. This summons was instantly obeyed, and he and his 
men returned to the frontier and remained there until discharged 
a second time. The whole expense of this expedition was paid 

* Dundurn, now Duaduni Park, Hamilton. 



LETTER OF WILLIAM WOODRUFF. 167 

for out of his own pocket, nor was he ever paid one penny of it 
back. Again, in the following winter, when General Winchester 
was advancing against Detroit to re-take it, Mr. Hornor 
shouldered his musket, took his place in the ranks as a private, 
and so remained until duly discharged." 

Mother's father, Capt. Turner, from Bennington County, 
Vermont, came into the country in 1823, and with two others 
took the contract of surveying the townships of Zorra and 
Nissouri, and settled a mile and a half west of where Woodstock 
now is. Hoping I have not wearied you, 

I am, yours truly, 

(Sgd.) (Mrs.) Annis M. Thorn. 



LETTER OF WILLIAM WOODRUFF, ESQ. 

St. David's, July 29th, 1840. 

Dear Sir, — As you may be in want of some historical 
knowledge respecting the battle of Queenston Heights, etc. 

On the morning of the 13th of October, 1812, a little before 
daylight, the American army commenced crossing the river. 

Our forces consisted of the Grenadier and Light Company 
of the 49th Regiment (the whole before Gen. Brock arrived was 
commanded by Capt. Dennis of the 49 Reg.). Two companies 
of the York Flanks, two from the head of the lake, the two flank 
companies of the ist Regiment L. M., also two from the Forty 
Mile Creek, lay at Niagara. We were put under arms about 
daylight. 

I saw the late Gen. Brock start from the Government House 
at Niagara, followed by his aide, the late Col. Macdonell. He 
left orders that as soon as the troops and militia could be got 
into line, to march to Queenston. 

We left Niagara about sunrise, and arrived at Durham's 



168 LETTER OF WILLIAM WOODRUFF. 

soon after. We made a small halt, and then marched up the 
hill to about where Mr. Stephens now lives ; but before we got 
there we saw a small firing on the hill about the place where 
the hustings are erected, when we were informed that, after the 
death of Gen. Brock, the gallant Col. Macdonell had led up a 
small force to oppose the Americans, where he received his 
death wound. We then met our small force on retreat. Gen. 
Sheaffe arrived about this time and assumed the command. We 
then deployed through S. Vrooman's, Mr. Hamilton's and 
Philip Middeau's fields, and gained the hills without any opposi- 
tion through the fields where James Williams now lives. We 
marched by old Mr. Chisholm's house,* and formed a line in 
where are now Dr. Hamilton's fields, the Americans occupying 
the point of the mountain with a front of about a quarter of a 
mile, it being covered with brush and timber, we being wholly 
without covering of any kind. We here waited eyeing each 
other for about an hour, waiting for the two flank companies of 
the 2nd Regiment Militia, and the Grenadier Company of the 
41st Regiment. The former arrived. 

We were then ordered to advance. Our little field-pieces 
commenced firing. It was returned by the Americans, with a 
6-pounder masked in the brush. A rapid advance was ordered, 
without firing a musket-shot on our part, until a small distance 
from the enemy under cover of the woods and underbrush. We 
were then ordered to halt and fire, which was done. About 
this time the company of the 41st joined us on the extreme 
right. 

We stood still but a short time, until, I supposed, we were 
ordered to advance with a double quick time. The musketry 
made such a noise I heard no orders, but as others moved we 
all followed. The object, I supposed, was to dislodge them 
from their cover, and, if possible, take their field-piece, for 
without knowing or seeing (for the smoke was dense) we, our 

* The Chisholm house is at present occupied by Mr. Smealon. 



LETTER OF WILLIAM WOODRUFF. 



169 



company, came smack against their field-piece, which, when we 
advanced, I suppose they had abandoned. 

The General and his aide, no doubt, as they ought to do 
had a position where all was clear to them, but as the wind blew 
from the enemy we had their smoke and ours in our faces To 
be more brief, the Americans, not being under discipline, 
would not be brought up again after they broke, but sought 
concealment under the bank. Our regulars and militia forces 
numbered about 800 and perhaps from 80 to 100 Indians. I 
must observe that the most severe and destructive part of the 
engagement to our people was in the morning before and a 
httle after the death of Gen. Brock. The prisoners after the 
engagement numbered about 900, exclusive of the dead and 
wounded. 

Sir, all this is from personal observation by myself. I may 
err m some minutiae, but it is correct in the main features. 

I have written a great deal without conveving much intelli- 
gence. 

Yours, 

(Sgd.) W, Woodruff. 
David Thorburn, 

Queenston. 




170 LETTER OF MRS JENOWAY. 



LETTER OF MRS. JENOWAY. 

The remains of earthworks in the rear and west of Brock's 
Monument, on Queenston Heights, has occasioned many sur- 
mises as by whom and for what purpose they were constructed. 
The following letter given to Hon. J. G. Currie by Mrs. 
Saxon, wife of the late Frederic Saxon, Esq., written by his 
aunt, Mrs. Jenoway, has been accepted by the Niagara Falls 
Park Commission, and placed on record as a satisfactory ex- 
planation as to the cause and time of their construction : 

Hope Cottage, Fort George, 

4th September, 1814. 
Miss Jenoway — 

To the care of R. O. Middleton, Esq., 
Cowper Street, Salford, 

Manchester, England. 

My Dear Sister, — It is with great pleasure I write these 
few lines to you to tell you of our good fortune so far, and I 
hope and trust in the Almighty for its continuance. It is now 
about five months since your brother was made Assistant 
Engineer at this place, and am glad to say his emoluments are 
very great, and so are his exertions. I only fear he will be ill 
with his great assiduity. We are living in a cottage of his own 
building. I assure you I am quite delighted with it, but am 
greatly afraid of our good fortune not lasting long, as it seems 
to me to be too good to remain any length of time. We have 
a fine horse and carriage of the country, which just holds our 
family and a little baggage. I have now been with my dear 
husband three months, which is the longest period we have 
lived together since we came to Canada. After I left Mrs. 
Robinson's family at Kingston, which was on the eleventh of 
December, Mr. Jenoway having got leave of absence for three 
weeks to take us up to York, where I remained at a boarding 




FORT MISSISSAUGA, 1 888. 



LETTER OF MRS. JENOWAY. I7i 

school. I had one room and boarded with the family, and paid 
at the rate of a hundred a year. I stopped there until the sixth 
of June, when I left to join my husband, who was at Queenston, 
havmg been ordered from Fort George to erect the fortifications 
there. I had only been a fortnight there when five thousand of 
the Yankees landed above Fort Erie. Mr. Jenoway was left to 
command Queenston and the fortifications he had constructed, 
but unfortunately our army had to retire after a hard battle', 
with only fifteen hundred of the British to oppose so many of 
the enemy. Consequently your brother had to blow up the 
batteries and make the best of his way to Fort George with 
his men and guns. Previous to that, about eleven o'clock in 
the night, I was obliged to make my retreat with the children. 
When we had got four miles from Queenston, six Indians 
rushed out of the bush and asked me for my money. The ser- 
vant was so frightened he durst not speak to them, but I had 
courage enough to make them understand I was an officer's 
lady, when they immediately went away. You may easily 
suppose what a tremor I was in. As we went towards the 
Twelve, before we got within six miles of it, our servant upset 
us. Fortunately we had no limbs broken, only much bruised. 
We were near a Mr. Thompson's, where we staid three weeks, 
with the Yankees within four miles of us and came a few times 
within a mile and a half of us. After the Americans had retired 
to St. David's and Queenston, my dear husband fetched me to 
Fort George, made the family a present of twenty-five dollars 
and drove off. My poor little Richard and his brother is, and 
has been for several weeks past, extremely ill of the ague and 
lake fever. 'Tis a second attack of it this time. It is nearly as 
bad here for that disease as in Walcherine, only not so 
dangerous. Hannah is well and grows a fine girl, but very 
backward in her talking. Your brother has pretty good health 
at present, but is almost hurried off his legs. I assure you that 
he is so very much employed that I have little of his company, 
as he has the entire command of the Engineer Department at 



172 LETTER OF MRS. J E NO WAY. 

Fort Mississauga and Fort George. The former is a large new 
fort, which he had the direction of at the commencement, and 
considered the largest and most important of any in Upper 
Canada. Not doubting you will participate in our good fortune, 
we hope the accompanying order on my brother will be accept- 
able. 

(The remainder of the letter is family matters.) 

Believe me, your affectionate sister, 

Harriet Jenoway, 

Address to us — R. O. Jenoway, 

Assistant Engineer, 

Fort George or elsewhere. 

Upper Canada, America. 




CHAPTER XX. 

PAST AND PRESENT NAMES OF PLACES. 

In the early period of discovery, from the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence to the head of Lake Superior was 
called on the ancient maps the St. Lawrence. 

Governor Haldimand had first named the district 
Nassau. Governor Simcoe changed the name to 
Niagara. He also named the ridge of land from 
Queenston to Burlington Mount Dorchester, the 
highest point being at Grimsby. 

In looking over letters and documents it is found 
that some places have changed their names more 
than once. 

Past Name. Present Name. 

Fort Conty \ p-^^^ Niagara, N.Y. 

Fort Denonville - - - - J 



West Niagara 

Onghiara 

Butlersburg 

Newark (by Governor Simcoe, New 

Ark Refuge) 

Niagara-on-the-Lake - 

173 



Niagara. 



174 PAST NAMES OF PLACES. 

Past Name. Present Name. 

Niagara Falls, Ontario, included the 
present Niagara Falls Park, to- 
gether with the islands, Bridge- |- Niagara Falls, 
water Mills, and what was formerly 
CHfton j 

Lundy's Lane \ 

Drummondville \ Niagara Falls South. 

Drummond Hill 



J 



- Niagara Falls. 



Elgin 

Suspension Bridge . . - - 

Clifton 

Street's Grove, sometimes Street's 

Creek, west of Chippewa, on the 

Chippewa Creek . - - - 

^, ^^... . J , - (■ Pelham, Font Hill and 

Short Hills comprised what is now -J ^ ^ , , 
*^ I St. John's. 

^°Rian'''"'- '° """""^^ ^^'-' ^^"^'^' } ^°'^ Mississauga. 
Lawrenceville . - - - 



Four Mile Creek - - - ' " 

Ten Mile Creek and Upper Ten Mile ^ rT„mpr 
v_reeK - - - - - i 

Twelve Mile Creek - - - - | gj, Catharines. 
Shipman's Corners - - - -J 

Suspension Bridge NY., and Man- | ^j p^jj j^ Y_ 

Chester are included in - - - j 

Twenty Mile Creek - - - - Jordan. 

Forty Mile Creek . . - - Grimsby. 

Ball's Mills ----- Glen Elgin. 

Merrittville - - - - - Welland. 

Crookston - Chautauqua, Niagara. 

Four Mile Creek Mills 

Davidsville - - - - - J^ St. David's. 

St. David's Town 




BRIDGEWATER MILL, 1 893. 
In Queen \'ictoria Niagara Falls Park. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

AN OLD LEDGER. 

In the endeavor to bring back the past, there is 
often great disappointment in questioning aged peo- 
ple. We have been told that early impressions are 
indelible, but when an attempt is made to particu- 
larize facts and dates, we seem to come upon the 
impossible. If we ask for old letters, there are but 
few ; for diaries or records, there are none. It is 
only fading memories, seldom recalled, that can be 
gathered, and tangled threads which we vainly try to 
straighten. 

In an old ledger, happily saved from destruction, 
and kindly lent by a friend. Dr. John A. Carroll, of 
St. Catharines, there are some good reasons for the 
silence and obscurity of the past. Everything was 
against the preservation of private or public docu- 
ments. The price of paper and ink, the high rate 
of postage, the imperfect ways of communication, 
the length of time, and last, but not least, the imper- 
fect education of our forefathers, are a few of the 
obstacles. Many men could scarcely sign their names. 
They did not spell correctly. Very few women could 
write; it was not thought necessary. If a woman 

175 



LEAF FROM AN OLD LEDGER. 



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AN OLD LEDGER. 



177 



could muster courage to make her mark on some 
extraordinary occasion, this was considered enough. 
If the pioneer life was hard for the man, it was still 
harder for the woman. 

The ledger of which we write, and from which 
selections will be made, was the property of Mr. 
Thomas Dickson, a merchant in Oueenston. Oueen- 
ston at that time might be considered the commercial 
centre of what is now the Province of Ontario. From 
Oueenston were sent the supplies needed in the re- 
motest settlements. These settlements had no names. 
The currency of that time was not in dollars and 
cents. One shilling would be 20 cents of the present 
time, 20 shillings £\, and 5 shillings $1.00. It is 
quite necessary this should be remembered as you 
read the prices of ninety-four years ago. The ledger 
was from 1806, through 1807 and 1808 and part of 
1809. The names are mostly of German ancestry 
a few French, some English and Scotch, and not 
many Irish. 



Paper, 3/ to 4/6 per quire. 

Sealing wax, 2/6 per stick. 
Almanacs, 1/2, Dutch 2/ 

Lottery ticket, 3/4 



Bible, 12/; Testament, 5/ 
Spelling-Book, 2/6 

25 Quills, 4/ ; by bunch, 5/ 
Postage, from 1/6 to 4/ 



Primer, i/. Pasteboard, 1/3 per sheet. 

Postage was very high, anywhere from 2/ to 4/, and 
on foreign correspondence still higher. Whenever it 
could be done, letters were sent by private hands to 
save the expense. 



12 



178 



AN OLD LEDGER. 



The necessities of life were very expensive ; luxur- 
ies were not much indulged in. Here are some of 
the prices : 



Muscovado Sugar, 2/4 per lb. 

Loaf Sugar, 3/6 " 

Maple Sugar, 1/ " 

Coffee, 4/ 

Chocolate, 4/ " 

Pepper, 5/ 

Snuff, 4/ 

Indigo, 3/ per oz. 

}i cwt. Flour, 13/ 

Eggs, i/3perdoz. 

Ham, 1/3 per lb. 



Hyson Tea, 8/ to 10/ per lb. 

Bohea Tea, 5/ 

Salt, 1 2/ per bushel, £z per bbl. 



Tobacco, 

Candles, 

Starch, 

Ginger, 

Allspice, 

Nutmegs, 

Potatoes, 

Vinegar, 



3/ to 6/ per lb. 
i8d. " 

2/6 " 
4/ " 

5/ " 
i/6apiece. 

3/ per bushel. 

2/6 per quart. 



Articles Worn. 
Thread, 



Printed calico, 5/6 per yd. 

Flannel, 5/6 

Striped cotton, 8/6 " 
Needles, i /per paper. 

(Generally sold by the yi doz.) 
Stockings, 9/ per pair. 

Man's fine hat, ^3 12s. 6d. 
Bandana handkerch'fs,9/to 13/ 
Set knitting needles, 1/ 

Cotton handkerchiefs, 3/ to 4/ apiece. 



6d. per spool. 
Ball and skein thread most 

commonly used. 
Sewing silk, 1/ per skein. 

Brown Holland, 4/6 per yd. 
Morocco slippers, 10/ per pair. 
Cotton, 3/ per yd. 

White vest, ^i 4s. 

Muslin, 10/ per yd. 



Articles for domestic use. 



Copper tea kettle. 


L^ 


i8s. 


Tin canister. 


3/ 


Iron pot, 




7/6 


Brass tacks. 


1/6 per 100 


Frying pan. 




18/ 


Pudding dish, 


4/ 


Shears, 




3/6 


Whip-lash, 


3/ 


Cow-bells, 




8/6 


Pins, 


3/ per paper. 


Spade, 




12/ 


Comb, 


4/ 


Skates, 




16/ 







JJrass candlesticks, per pair, 16/ 



AN OLD LEDGER. 



179 



Building materials and tools were very expensive. 



Nails, 
Gimlet, 
White lead, 
Glass, 7 X g, 
Brick, 

Locket, 
Breast pin, 
SnufF box. 
Watch key, 
Watch, 
Tobacco, 



2/ per lb. 

gd. 

3/ per lb. 

1/ per pane. 

6/2 per 100 

Luxuries. 
^i6s. 
6s. 
3s. 
3s. 

iZ I2S. 

3/ to 6/ per lb. 



Lock, 
Hammer, 
Screws, 
Door latch, 
Chamber lock, 



9/ 
4/ 
2%^. each. 

4/ 
16/ 



Ladies' twist a specialty. 

Digging grave, 6/ 

Making a cupboard, ;^i 

Folding bedstead, 16/ 

Cradle, 8/ 



What they drank. 
Rum, 14/ per gal., 3/6 per qt. 
Whiskey, 2/ per qt. 

Brandy, 16/ per gal. 

Barrel of cider, £1 

Spirits, 16/ per gallon. 

Wine, 18/ " " 

Port Wine, 18/ " " 

Teneriffe Wine. 
Madeira. 
Beer, per keg, 16/ 



Sword, sash and belt, £2, 4s. 

Proportion for a dance, ;{^i 6s. 

Wine glasses, 3/ apiece. 
Windsor soap, 1/6 a cake. 

Pair of boots, ^3 4s. 
Silk handkerchief, 13/ 

Useful Articles. 



Wash tub. 
Iron kettles. 
Brass kettles. 
Pewter teapot. 
Mouse trap. 
Tumblers, 
Sad iron. 
Gun powder. 
Japanned pitcher. 
Turpentine, 
Chairs, 



12/ 
from ^i to ^^4 
^2 

16/ 

6/ 
1/6 apiece. 

6/ 
6/ per lb. 

3/ per pint. 
12/ apiece. 



180 AN OLD LEDGER. 

Medicines. 
Glauber salts. 
Turlington. 
Sulphur — Brimstone. 

For horse-shoeing, repairing of furniture, freight 
transportation from Detroit to Montreal, and to every 
hamlet, pork, beef, flour, everything marketable, were 
taken in exchange. 

The stores had in stock everything needed for 
domestic use. Much of the trade was in exchange 
for articles raised, or of home manufacture. There 
are charges for making men's best suits of expensive 
material and those for common use. As Queenston 
had other stores, there were supplies for all kinds of 
vessels, from His Majesty's warships to the fisher- 
man's bark and the Indian's canoe. One can readily 
see what were the necessities and what the luxuries 
of that time. There was gilt-edged china, cut glass 
and all grades of cutlery. There were medicines and 
drugs. Brimstone was always necessary, as also pills 
and ointments. The women were not forgotten, for 
frequently we see untrimmed bonnets, ribbons, etc., 
and occasionally thread-lace and velvet. Furniture 
also, for common chairs were 12/ apiece. There was 
probably a coopershop, for barrels were in great 
demand. A blacksmith shop also in connection, as 
there are charges frequently made for work of this 
kind. The only difference between the general store 
of a hundred years since and the departmental store 



AN OLD LEDGER. jgj 

of the present is, that the wants of that age were less, 
and there were no bargain days ! 

Value of currency used one hundred years a^ro • 

York currency, $2.50 to the £. 

Eight York shillings, \2% cents, $1.00. 

Halifax currency, $4.00 to the £. 

Five shillings at 20 cents to the $1.00. 

The military accounts were kept in sterling money. 

Gumeas, 2t shillings. 

Twenty shillings sterling /i. 

The money in circulation was English and Spanish 
gold, Spanish silver dollars and quarters, York shill- 
ings and sixpences, copper pennies, half-pennies and 
farthings. 

Mr. Morris, an old resident of Beamsville, Ion- 
smce dead, gave the following anecdote of the Wa"^ 
of 1 8 12. He had served as a volunteer and had fur- 
nished supplies for the troops. At the end of the war 
he came to Queenston to receive his pay. He was 
paid in Spanish silver, which he put in canvas bac^s 
and started to walk to Beamsville. Before Ion- the 
bags became very heavy. They were shifted "from 
one pocket to another in the vain effort to make them 
balance. The money was at last taken from the 
bags, and divided in the best manner possible. " It 
was the first and only time in my life that I ever had 
too much money." 



CHAPTER XXII. 

MRS. G ROVER, OF SEATON HALL, COLBORNE. 

A FRIEND has placed in my hands certain " Recol- 
lections " of the school experiences and daily life of 
Mrs. Grover, of Col borne. The selections from them 
form a connecting link between the period when the 
settler had overcome the difficulties of the first settle- 
ment and the invasion of 1 812. It shows how the 
women of Canada were educated after the war, and 
what was thought necessary for a finished education. 
Mrs. Grover's ancestry was from families who were 
most prominent in revolutionary times, and is an 
addition to the honored names of the U. E. Loyalists 
These recollections were written for her grandchildren 
when she was between seventy and eighty years ot 
age. 

Mrs. Grover is the granddaughter of Matthew 
Goslee and Ann Schuyler mentioned in the following 
pages. 

No name stands higher in New York annals than 
that of her uncle. General Philip Schuyler, the brave 
soldier and courteous gentleman, of kindly heart to 
friend and foe, the wise counsellor and the right 

182 



MRS. G ROVER, 01^ COLBORNE. 183 

hand of Washington ; the two united by a friendship 
commencing before the Revolutionary War and end- 
ing only with their lives. Such is the brief record of 
his noble life. 

It will, no doubt, be a matter of surprise to find 
that a woman who had suffered so cruelly in every 
way as did Ann Schuyler, should choose for a hus- 
band a Loyalist, and, turning away from all that was 
pleasant in the life of those days, resolve to share his 
lot in the Canadian wilderness. 

Mrs. Grover's recollections commence with the 
following obituaries. The precise dates are not 
given : 

In the Colborne Express, of 1850, appeared the 
following obituary : 

"On Monday, the 21st instant, 1850, in the village of Col- 
borne, at the residence of her son, Ann Schuyler, relict of the 
late Matthew Goslee, and mother of J, D. Goslee, Esq., in the 
88th year of her age. 

" Mrs. Goslee was a niece of General Schuyler, of Revolu- 
tionary fame. She was born in Albany, and spent the early 
part of her life in the United States. She accompanied her 
husband at the end of the Revolutionary War, in 1783, to 
Canada, with other Loyalists. They left their home and their 
all from pure attachment to their sovereign, and sufifered all 
the privations consequent upon settling in a new country. Mr. 
Goslee died in 1830, since which period the deceased lived 
with her son (her only child). She retained full possession of 
her faculties till the last hour of her life." 

Other obituaries follow, the dates not given : 
" Elizabeth Hamilton, cousin of Mrs. Goslee, and wife ot 
Alexander Hamilton, died in Washington on Thursday. The 



184 MRS. GROVER, OF COLBORNE. 

remains were brought to New York City, and the funeral ser- 
vices took place in Trinity Church to-day at i o'clock. Mrs. 
Hamilton was the eldest daughter of General Philip Schuyler, 
born at the old family mansion, Albany ; married to Hamilton 
in that city, December, 1780. At the time of her marriage 
Hamilton was aide to Washington, with the rank of lieut.- 
colonel, and had just completed his twenty-fourth year. Mrs. 
Hamilton survived her husband over fifty years. Both she 
and her sister Catharine were cousins of Mrs. Goslee, whose 
obituary we publish to-day." 

Mrs. Grover copies from an old register the follow- 
ing marriages, celebrated in 1780 : 

" Married in Albany, Elizabeth Schuyler, eldest daughter of 
General Schuyler, to the gallant Hamilton,* aide to General 
Washington, with the battle guns of the Revolution firing a 
salute, and Liberty Bell ringing a merry peal." 

Again, two years later : 

" The marriage of Ann, niece to General Schuyler, at the 
old Manor House in Albany, to Matthew Goslee, a soldier of 
the Revolution, took place on the nth day of August, 1782." 

" Catharine, the second daughter of General Schuyler, 
married Colonel Cochran, and settled in Oswego. She visited 
Mrs. Goslee, and at her death the funeral sermon was printed 
and sent to Mrs. Grover's mother." 

" Mrs. Hamilton lived to be ninety-six years old. They had 
no children. Their graves are in Trinity church-yard, New 
York. Mrs. Goslee's mother died when she was quite young. 
Her father and only brother were killed at the same time, 
fighting on the Revolutionary side. General Washington, 
before those troublous times, had been god-father to her cousins, 
Elizabeth and Catharine Schuyler, and herself." 



*Alexander Hamilton, killed in a duel with Aaron Burr, Vice-Presi- 
dent of the United States, July lith, 1804. 



MRS. GROVER, OF COLBORNE. 185 

There are many anecdotes connected with these 
" recollections." One that Hamilton and Aaron Burr 
came together to General Schuyler's, and were given 
a cup of coffee by the sisters, Hamilton saying, as 
he took the cup, " May the Lord preserve you." In an 
old letter of Kate Schuyler's she says, " I have cut 
Aaron Burr, never to speak to him again." 

An anecdote of Washington and General Wayne 
is given, very characteristic of both. Washington 
asked General Wayne if he could storm Stony Point 
and take it from Clinton, who had strongly fortified it. 
" I will storm hell if you will plan it, General," was 
the reply. " Try Stony Point first," said Washington, 
solemnly. Wayne did, and took it on the evening 
of July i6th, 1779. 

Mrs. Grover gives a selection from an old song, 
popular in 1776, evidently written to show the Mother 
Country how well the colonists lived : 

" On turkeys, fowls and fishes 
Most frequently they dine ; 
With gold and silver dishes 
Their tables always shine. 

" Wine sparkles in their glasses. 
They spend the time away 
In merriment and dances 
In North America." 

Mrs. Grover describes the scene where her grand- 
mother, seated on the fence under a cherry tree, saw 
her father and brother, with a company of volunteers. 



186 ^'^^-S-. GROVER, OF COLBORNE. 

march to their last battle, and heard her brother's 
parting words, " Look out you don't fall, Sis ! " 
Through the afternoon, from this position, she listened 
to the boom of the cannon, and saw their defeat. 
She then ordered a colored man, their slave, to saddle 
two horses and secrete them, until needed, in a hickory 
grove near by. Her friends were rushing past, telling 
every one to save themselves, for the British were 
victorious and were burning their homes and driving off 
their cattle. They saw the burning barns and knew 
their homes would soon follow. Her father's last 
letter had told that her uncle. General Schuyler, was 
stationed in the Jersey woods. With her attendant 
she rode night and day to put herself under his pro- 
tecting care. While passing through a wood on the 
second day they saw tents in the distance, and hur- 
ried on till stopped by a sentinel with the command, 
" Dismount." The girl was suspected of being a spy. 
She stood on the ground and began to tell her pitiful 
story, while the slave was trying to disengage an 
enormous horse-pistol from his garments. Just at 
that time a young officer came riding up, and she 
noticed that his red coat showed one sleeve gone, and 
the place supplied by a blood-stained bandage. She 
knew at once that she was in the enemy's camp, with 
the evidences of battle surrounding her. She was 
weak and faint for want of food, and wearied with her 
long ride. The officer sent for food and wine, and 
told the colored man to put up his pistol, " for the 
young lady will come to no harm. Is she your mis- 



MRS. GROVE R, OF COLBORNE. 187 

tress, and who is she?" he asked. "Yes, massa ; she 
is my mistress, Miss Annie Schuyler. The Britishers 
have killed my massa and Mr. Philip, then burn us 
up, and we run away to find my missus' uncle. We 
thought he was in these woods ; guess we're mis- 
taken." " My God ! " exclaimed the officer, " a niece 
of General Schuyler in this wood with no protection 
but this slave ! " He begged her to take the food. 
When she had done so he assisted her to remount 
her horse, and, leading the way, gave the necessary 
directions, following which, a few hours after, she 
found herself with her uncle at his headquarters. 
From there she was sent to the old Schuyler mansion 
near Albany, and remained with her cousins until her 
marriage, which was from his house and with his 
approval. It was there she again met the officer who 
had shown her such considerate kindness in those 
hours of bereavement, defeat and danger. 

Scarlet riding-habits were the fashion of that time. 
The one worn on that memorable day was afterwards 
made into a cloak with a chapeau, long used during 
her Canadian life, and the saddle is now in Mrs. 
Grover's possession. Matthew Goslee was the name 
of this brave man, who afterwards became her hus- 
band. His family lived in Maryland, and six brothers 
served in the Continental Army. He served under 
Cornwallis, and was in the 33rd Foot, participating in 
many battles of the Revolution. He was with Corn- 
wallis in his unfortunate campaign, and was among 
those who gave up their swords at the surrender of 



188 MRS. G ROVER, OF COLBORNE. 

Yorktown, October nth, 1781. He ever referred to 
this as the most unhappy day of his Hfe. 

Mr. Goslee owned a plantation and fifty slaves. 
These were confiscated at the close of the war. The 
plantation was bought in by his brothers and offered 
to be restored if he would return and live there. He 
chose, however, the life of the Loyalists along with 
his faithful wife, Ann Schuyler. 

Mr. Goslee settled near Colborne, and had 1,000 
acres of land. The log-house was built among the 
pines to protect it from the heat of summer and the 
cold of winter. They lived the old story of the 
settler's life in its earliest days ; the log-house with 
its immense fire-place and the large logs piled upon 
each other. Here the Indians, hungry and almost 
naked, slept before the fire. In Matthew Goslee's 
house they ever found help and shelter. 

The only son and child of Matthew Goslee married 
at twenty-one the daughter of a U. E. Loyalist, and 
settled beside the old homestead, only a stream 
dividing them. They had three daughters and one 
son. One of the daughters was Mrs. Grover. She 
was born and lived for many years in her grand- 
father's house, and was ever asking from both her 
grandparents " stories about the war." They will not 
be given here, as they are familiar to the readers of 
American history, and corroborative of what has 
been so often told. She tells of her dress of striped 
linen, spun and woven by her mother, the stripe 



MRS. GROVER, OF COLBORNE. 189 

brown, colored from the bark of the butternut tree. 
" Grandfather made me shoes from cloth." 

The main road ran past her grandfather's house, 
with the " forest primeval " on each side. In summer 
they went in an ox-cart when not on horseback ; in 
winter with a sleigh. Mrs. Grover's school life com- 
menced with her grandfather taking her to the school, 
which was a log building and kept by a young man 
whose name was Daniel Cummings, a member of the 
Baptist Church. Mr. Goslee would put the child on 
horseback, hang her lunch basket on the horn of the 
saddle, and lead the horse to the school, coming for 
her at four o'clock. There she learned her A B C's, 
but " never mastered the rnultiplication table ! " She 
was sent to an American boarding-school when 
twelve years old, much against her grandfather's 
wishes, where she stayed a year without coming 
home. At that school Harriet Beecher, afterwards 
the celebrated Mrs. Stowe, graduated the same year. 
Many Canadians were there. She gives some of her 
studies — geography, history, rhetoric, philosophy, 
mythology. With the others she made a drawing of 
the map of the world, which pleased her father very 
much. She made a drawing, also, of a mourning piece 
with a large tombstone and a lady standing under 
a weeping willow. While absent the beloved grand- 
father died. He could never be prevailed upon to 
visit the United States.^ On her return home she 
came partly by the stage coach and the Erie Canal to 



190 MRS. G ROVER, OF COLBORNE. 

Rochester, and then crossed the lake to Presqu' Isle, 
where she was met by her father and taken home. 

The following year the young student was taken 
to York (now Toronto) to the school of the Misses 
Purcell and Rose. This was in May, 1831, her father 
giving her a ring engraved with her initials and $25 
for spending money during the term. The school 
was under the patronage of Lady Colborne, whose 
husband was Governor at that time. She gives the 
names of the teachers, and the persons attending the 
school, who were the daughters of the leading people 
in Ontario. " Miss Purcell was like a mother to us, 
and the school life was happiness and perfection." 
She tells of an invitation from Lady Colborne for the 
school to attend a bazaar, and for which a holiday 
was given. 

" On the day appointed we marched down the street, two 
teachers in front, two behind, and the boarders two by two 
between them. The soldiers of the 71st Highlanders lined the 
corridors and room where the bazaar was held, and their band 
gave such heavenly music. I was fifteen then, and had never 
seen soldiers dressed in this manner, and I felt my face redden 
as I saw the bare knees. Their bearskin caps, too, surprised 
me. The tables were beautiful. Lady Colborne was at one, 
and her sister, Miss Young, at another. The young ladies at 
the different tables wore white dresses, and small black silk 
aprons with pockets. Sir John was present, walking up and 
down the hall and leading his little daughter by the hand. I 
knew he had been at Waterloo, and I thought of Washington, 
Cornwallis, and the people I had heard grandfather talk about." 

Our narrator met at other times two ladies in deep 
mourning, one a Miss Shaw, the fiancee of General 



MRS. GROVE R, OF COLBORNE. 191 

Brock, who wore black to the day of her death, and a 
Miss Givens, " who was engaged to a son of Sir 
Peregrine Maitland by his first wife. This gentleman 
went to England for his health, and died on the 
return trip. Miss Givens lived to be ninety-one years 
of age, faithful to the love of her youth. I never 
forgot that beautiful day in June, and can see it still." 

Mrs. Grover's house in Colborne, in after years, was 
named, in memory of those pleasant days, " Seaton 
Hall," Sir John Colborne having become Lord 
Seaton. 

The recollections do not say what was studied in 
the Toronto School, but there were " pencil drawings, 
wonderful embroideries, with shaded silks to imitate 
engravings, and still more wonderful samplers." 
They had a French dancing-master, but the waltz 
and the polka were unheard of After her return 
home at Christmas time there were private theatri- 
cals, her brother figuring as David, and a very tall 
serving man as Goliath. They had an ancient piano, 
and her brother had a guitar for serenades. 

Mrs. Grover tells of a trip to New York with her 
father and mother, driving from her home to Brigh- 
ton, taking tea at Presqu' Isle, and leaving there by 
steamer for Charlotte, the port for Rochester, United 
States. They stayed there two days, visiting places 
around the city. From there they went by the Erie 
Canal to Albany. The boat was drawn by three 
horses abreast, and they thought it a most delightful 
way of travelling. 



192 MRS. GROVER, OF COLBORNE. 

" Twenty miles this side of Albany we saw the first railroad 
and enjoyed the change ; then on a floating palace from 
Albany to New York. . . . New York City was a wonder 
to us. I supplied myself with everything new. Father took 
us to the Park Theatre. We heard Tyrone Power, who was 
afterwards lost on the ill-fated President. Father hired a 
private carriage and we drove about the city, Brooklyn and 
various places on Long Island Sound. We were in New York 
six weeks, and greatly admired the character of the people. 
While in New York we were present at the farewell of Fanny 
Kemble to the stage, and were fortunate in having good seats. 
The play was ' The Wife,' and the Opera House and all other 
places of amusement were closed, as every one wished to hear 
the talented actress for the last time. The house was full, and 
she acquitted herself worthy of her fame before the assembly 
of beauty and fashion. The excitement of feeling was of the 
most intense nature. Smiles, tears, wit, applause congregated 
there to give a dazzling effect to the whole. Many who had 
never entered a theatre before flocked to hear the great Kemble 
and his daughter as she took her farewell. At the end they 
came forward, and Mr. Kemble said, ' We bid you farewell,' 
amid the waving of handkerchiefs, fans, play bills, etc. After 
our return father sold his land and moved into Colborne. My 
sister went to school in Montreal, my brother to college. My 
father bought a horse for me, and I ever used the Revolu- 
tionary saddle.'' 

Well might Mrs. Grover say : 

"Those lives were noble in their missions, strong in their 
fortitude, sublime in their patience, and tenderly humane in 
unselfishness and neighborliness. Often my grandmother, 
after her own duties for the day were ended, would carry a 
pine torch and wave it to protect herself from wild animals 
while going through the woods to a neighbor whom sickness or 
death had visited. It may be these are better times, but the 
more we catch the spirit of those days the nearer we shall be to 
nature's God." 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

CONCLUSION. 

It has been the aim of the writer in these Reminis- 
cences to recall the high character of the mothers of 
this Dominion. They were indeed worthy helpmeets 
of the men who levelled the forests and cleared the 
broad acres of their new home. With unwearied 
patience these women shared their varied toils ; with 
quiet fortitude endured the separation from kindred 
and the homes of their youth to bear with them the 
hardships and the isolation of the settler's life, with a 
loyalty and courage always rising to meet whatever 
the occasion and duty demanded. 

There is no place that is not rich in local history. 
It is the duty of those who live among the men and 
women who made it, to gather their story and pre- 
serve their traditions before they are lost forever, that 
the names of these worthy pioneers shall not be for- 
gotten and their services to the country remain un- 
appreciated. A great statesman said, that " people 
who never look back to their ancestors will not look 
forward to posterity," and it is good advice for the 
past and the present. Strangers visiting among us 
have noticed this forgetfulness. 
13 193 



194 CONCLUSION. 

Mrs. Jamieson, the wife of an early vice-chancellor, 
came to Canada late in the year 1836. She had two 
objects in view — to see Niagara Falls, and to study for 
herself the characteristics of our Indian tribes. She 
did both. It was her privilege to meet the Indians 
under conditions seldom offered to anyone. She staid 
among them and saw the better side of the best men 
and best women of their race. She bears witness to 
the disabilities under which the Indian lived — the 
vain effort to escape the temptations set for him at 
every step, by the pernicious example of the white 
man, and victimized by the covetousness which robbed 
him of his lands for the most meagre compensation. 
Her keen observation saw other things, for she com- 
mented upon the political life and the mistakes of 
that stormy period. More than these, she saw with 
honest indignation the position of Canadian women, 
and with what silent fortitude they bore their lot. 

Mrs. Moodie and Mrs. Traill came to Canada in 
1832. The remainder of their lives were spent in this 
Province. They have given to the world their experi- 
ences as settlers in " Roughing it in the Bush " and 
" The Backwoods of Canada." They helped our 
literature, and did much to make our country known 
in the old land from which they came. They, too, 
bear w^itness to the industry and kindness of our 
women. Let us not forget, as we recall the memories 
of the dying past, the tribute due to the living present. 
History is repeating itself before our eyes. The 
Doukhobortsi, now making homes for themselves and 
their children on the prairies of the great North-West, 



CONCLUSION. 195 

may show the same gratitude to the friends who 
brought them across the seas, as did the Huguenots 
and the homeless sufferers of the Palatine. Their 
women, who, yoked together, with relieving ranks, 
turned the sod of the fertile prairies, are also training 
their sons and daughters to be our helpers and de- 
fenders in the years to come. 

On every hand women are working in the " strife 
for truths which men believe not now." Through 
many difficulties and much opposition women can 
now enter the open doors of the University and Col- 
leges to that higher education which men and women 
alike need. Both have a common interest in the great 
questions of the day. An intelligent comprehension 
of these questions is not above woman's capabilities, 
nor are they unneeding of her help. Women rise or 
fall as they understand the duties which the age 
brings upon them. While they choose their vocation 
in life they should remember with gratitude the 
patient years of study, the unobtrusive and undaunted 
courage, with which Miss Martin has won this right 
for herself and others. 

The story of Laura Secord is again presented to 
the public with the hope that the time has arrived 
when our people will unite to erect a monument 
worthy of the courage and patriotism it will repre- 
sent. But for Mrs. Curzon Miss Secord's name would 
have only been a foot-note in history. In rescuing 
her name from oblivion she gave an inspiration which 
it is our duty to perpetuate. 



